Cherreads

Chapter 12 - Invisible Flames

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[Quest: Survive the Fifth Wave Completed.]

[You have received 30 Allocation Points.]

[You have received the title: The Cursed Hunter (Level 5)!!]

[All stats have increased by 2.]

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Another month passed in the blink of an eye, though for Vritra each day seemed like a week; after slaughtering minotaurs for an entire month he finally had the time to rest; he sat with his back against a wall that was painted in red, as he ate the meat of the strongest minotaurs that he slain.

His body was battered and bruised, the battle became much more difficult than he had anticipated as days passed the minotaurs became much stronger the earlier ones, Vritra almost lost his life a couple of times but in the end, those mighty minotaurs ended up as his food.

"Sigh Zengis, I think even if I survive the sixth round, I might finally die at the seventh or eighth round. You will once again be left alone and you will never meet those beautiful stones, yeah yeah I know why exactly are you sad so stop sulking." Vritra spoke and then sighed, throwing Zengis back into inventory.

"Just me from five months ago would laugh if someone told him that I would be talking like this with a stone, if I remain here for too long then I might go completely crazy… well more than I already am that is if I live long enough." He sighed again, distracting his mind with the thoughts of killing the people responsible for his current situation and his mother.

'There is no use thinking about that right now, I have to get out of here safely, sigh let's see the status window.' Vritra thought as an ethereal window appeared in front of him.

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Name: Vritra Arclis 

Level: 181 [2%]

Titles: The Cursed Hunter (Level 5) 

Mana: 2080/2080 

Vitality: 100% 

Stats: 

Strength: 210

Agility: 211

Endurance: 209

Intelligence: 210

Mana: 208

Luck: 40

[Allocation points: 280] 

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After eating his fill Vritra decided to sleep since like before he believed that the next wave will only arrive after a day or two, so after eating a large amount of meat he moved further back into the cave and covered himself with the skin of a demon that he used as blanket and soon he drifted off to sleep.

There were no wounds on his body and all his fatigue was gone, though his throat felt a bit rough because of the constant consumption of the demon's blood aside from that Vritra was in his peak state.

He was sure that he would be victorious even in the next wave but Vritra was also aware that just the starting level of 6th wave was going to be quite high, he might even need to use those allocation points.

***

Something was definitely strange this time, Vritra ate and slept peacefully for two days and got ready for the next horde of demons on the third day but nothing appeared, he thought that he might be getting an extra free day since the next wave will be extremely dangerous so he happily accepted and rested.

But even on the fourth day there was no sign of the next wave, then on the fifth day, sixth day and yet nothing seemed to be happening; Vritra grew more and more puzzled and now this peaceful time only made him more nervous.

While sitting he decided to have a look at his status window, wondering how much it had changed by now.

Just as he finished another large piece of lava hound meat mixed with minotaur and Troll's meat, he felt an unfamiliar sensation, it was hard to describe but it stirred something deep within him as if something was directly affecting his soul itself.

Vritra caught the sight of something sparkling in one corner of the cave not too far away from him, feeling curious he approached it slowly and cautiously.

As he got closer, Vritra finally saw it- a colorless flame, flickering and swaying weakly despite there being no wind in the cave. It was a fire without any color, if his sight hadn't improved so much then Vritra might have easily missed this colorless flame that was slightly bigger in size than a flame lit over a lighter.

"Now now, what is this thing? How come there is fire burning here and I have never seen one like that, it is kind of transparent and almost impossible to detect." Vritra mumbled, staring at the flames intently.

After thinking for a moment, he blew air at it but it didn't go out, no matter how hard he tried; since he had nothing else to do so he decided to find more about this strange occurrence, yet he was caution enough to not get too close to the harmless looking fire.

Picking up a sword from the side he put its tip into the flames and waited patiently but nothing happened, the invisible didn't even leave a mark on the sword even though the sword was of such low quality.

He did a few more experiments but found absolutely nothing while he was busy with it, two eyes glowing brightly within the space itself looked at him with hope and expectations, as if they had found their last hope.

"What is up with this fire, it can't even cook meat; sigh well forget it." Vritra shook his head as he withdrew the dust blade from the flames, he wasn't even sure how did it appeared there out of nowhere.

He tore a piece of cloth from a nearby corpse and put one of its end into the flames while he held onto the other end, wondering if it really can't burn anything but just as the cloth came in contact with the flames, they invisible fire actually began to burn the cloth or so Vritra thought.

But as he focused, Vritra noticed that instead of setting the cloth to fire the flames themselves had climbed onto the cloth as if it was some living creatures.

Startled; he hastily threw away the cloth, but it was too late; the invisible flames had already climbed onto his hand from the cloth, with his heart thumping wildly in his heart he shook his hand violently, but it stuck to him like the damn tax.

It just won't let go.

The flames moved from his finger to cover his palm and then up to his wrist within seconds, but for some reason he felt no pain, but he was panicking so much that his only thought was to get it away from him.

He enveloped it with clothes to cut oxygen supply, covered it completely in dust, even blew air at it but nothing worked at all, with each passing moment he was getting more and more nervous and afraid.

"T- There isn't huff any water here- wait I can try using the blood." Looking around, Vritra hastily shoved his hand into the chest of a corpse, hoping to use its blood to finally get rid of this damned fire.

'I heard curiosity killed the cat, now I understand it all too well. Fuck!!' Vritra stayed like that for a few seconds, but as he pulled his hand back he noticed the colourless flame seemed a little more intense than before as if it had just eaten a full meal.

He took out a healing potion and drank it but it too had no effect, no matter what he tried all his efforts resulted in failure, while the flames continued to move up his arm.

"Well Shit, is this really it? Ugh it is making me dizzy, something deep within me hurts; it is not my internal organs but as if it is affecting my existence itself, my soul?" Vritra tried to think calmly but he couldn't find a way, soon his fear turned into rage.

He had been getting his ass whooped and slaughter non stop for five months, suffering so much pain and headaches, all for him to die from this?

He couldn't accept this, he didn't wasn't to accept this, staring at the colourless flame that was undoubtedly planned to devour him as it slowly continued crawling up to his elbow Vritra's beastly instinct took over.

Without even thinking he bit his own hand with enough strength as his teeth sank into his flesh, a metallic taste filling his mouth, as he felt the pain Vritra's mind cleared; realizing what he had done Vritra hastily moved his hand away from his mouth in fear that it will even latch onto his head.

GULP

Vritra gulped his own blood in nervousness as he picked a shiny sword from the ground and looked at his own face through the reflection, thankfully there was no invisible flames on his face but then his body froze as his gaze focussed on the words that appeared in front of him.

[Mutamorphis: Analysing the body…]

[You have consumed a part of one of the Mythic Halos.]

[The Third ranked Mythic Halo: Nihil-Anima Mythic Halo detected.]

Vritra was shocked to see that message, although he had no idea what that thing was but what he saw was that from he had bitten his own palm, the strange invisible flame seemed to have disappeared, he was actually able to eat the flame.

[Warning: Mythic Halo assimilation in progress…]

[Absorbing Nihil-Anima Mythic Halo into the host's soul.]

[Processing...]

[Failed!]

[Processing...]

[Failed!]

[Processing...]

[Failed!]

[Processing…]

[Failed]

[Processing…]

[Failed!]

[Processing…]

[Failed!]

[Processing…]

[Failed!]

[Processing…]

[Failed!]

Vritra saw the series of messages but what got his attention was the part of his skin where he had bit just moments ago, the invisible fire really disappeared from there.

He didn't care if it will work or not, or whether it will be dangerous; believing in his strange skill Vritra did what he thought was the most natural at that moment.

BITE!!

He bit down at the invisible flames and swallowed, even though it felt like he wasn't eating anything but the messages popping in front of him proved that actually wasn't the case.

[You have consumed a part of one of the Mythic Halos.]

...

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