CHAPTER 320: IT HAS SEEN YOU

[Ding! You have gained +1 Mental Resistance]

[Ding! You have extracted the ability ’Minor Mental Corruption’.]

[Ding! Minor Mental Corruption has been upgraded to level 2.]

[Ding! You have extracted the ability ’Toxic Burst’]

[Ding! Toxic Burst has been upgraded to level 3.]

Damon smiled and swiped the notifications away. He had truly underestimated the number of corrupted abominations in this place, as well as the treasure chests. His list of poison skills and corruption skills was stacking up quite nicely, and he had amassed a total of 1 million gold coins already.

There were also some rare drops here and there, which he quickly tossed into his inventory without breaking a stride. His blood archives were expanding at an alarming pace. He had barely slogged for 7 or 8 hours, and he had already gained so much.

It looked like this place was truly a death trap, as countless beings were roaming around mindlessly and corrupted, looking to pull in even more companions. The treasure chests here were equally staggering.

If one entered this place with eyes greedy for the treasure chests all around, then one would only have their mind corrupted and become a part of this place. Damon sighed as he saw the creatures milling about in the distance.

Thanks to his ridiculous stamina from his mana forged and blood forged body, he was able to keep going. Otherwise, he would have been forced to take a break by now.

The thing was, if he wanted, he could even bypass all these abominations and move around them in stealth mode to collect the treasures. These abominations were not really the sharpest tools in the shed, but doing that would only make him lose out on some wonderful upgrades.

The Bloodlands were a brutal place. He had a feeling that maybe he was rushing, but after farming for stats and skills here, he no longer had that concern. He could now confidently step into that desolate territory.

Coincidentally, the place there would probably be similar to this one, with demons and undead throwing themselves at him, except they wouldn’t be this dumb and mindless, only relying on the poison and corruption to do most of their work.

[Ding! You have extracted the ability ’Malignant Pulse’.]

Malignant Pulse: Unleashes a shockwave of corruptive energy in a short radius. Enemies hit suffer reduced healing effectiveness, minor stat decay, and a stacking sickness effect that worsens with each pulse.

[Ding! You have gained +1 soul resistance.]

Damon’s eyes widened. Just when he thought this couldn’t get better, a new stat popped up in front of him. Soul resistance.

That was an entirely different beast from mental resistance. Mental resistance guarded the mind, thoughts, emotions, and perception, but soul resistance was the wall between his very existence and anything that could shatter, twist, or consume it.

It was the sort of stat that most players would spend months grinding for, and even then, they’d be lucky to see it increase by a single point. If he had more of this, perhaps he wouldn’t have suffered the backlash when he formed the primordial core.

And now he had just gotten one for casually blasting a group of plagueforged into corrosive sludge. He wondered just what other surprises this place had in store for him. Everything about this place was built to beef him up.

The entire territory was a treasure trove for him. He grinned, baring fangs. "I could get addicted to this place."

However, there was one thing that was bothering him. He did not know why, but from time to time, he felt uneasy. It felt as if someone was watching him from somewhere. His primordial senses tingled, warning him that something was off.

From time to time, the miasma around him shifted in a way that made no sense. Poison clouds didn’t swirl against the wind like that. And twice now, his Primordial Senses had brushed against something vast, something that retreated the instant he noticed it, like a shadow ducking out of sight.

This was why Damon had stopped going further in and simply continued to kill stuff in the outer areas, but still, he couldn’t shake that feeling of danger away. Did he maybe already wake up that thing that was sleeping in the tall mountain? That had to be the only explanation.

Naturally, a part of him was alert, and he even kept the teleport to Blood Hall option open and ready, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet. Damon did not reveal anything on his face and continued to farm with a happy-go-lucky expression, acting as if he did not have a single care in the world.

He also continued to check on Blood Reign mentally. He had already consumed the gem, or more specifically, a red mist appeared from his body, which surrounded the gem and corroded it completely, going back in after finishing the meal. But he did not get any response from her after that.

Seeing she was not going to be up and running any time soon, Damon decided to try his luck with the other woman.

"Hello, Miss Snake, are you there?" He tried to mentally reach out to her. Unlike Blood Reign, who constantly popped up in his mind even when he did not want her to, this woman’s presence was basically non-existent.

Even when he reached out, for a long moment, there was no response. Then, finally, after an hour or so, the familiar voice lazily sounded. "You call... little vampire...?"

Damon’s face twitched. To his surprise, the woman continued speaking. "You play in the breath of my kin’s blood. I can feel it on you..."

"Yeah, I noticed," Damon said, slashing another rotten dwarf with his Blood Cleave. "So, how about you stop lurking and tell me what’s watching me from the mountain? Can you sense anything at all? It’s a dragon, right? Some sort of dragon snake?"

"If you can’t see it yet, you’re not ready to face it. But it has seen you. That much I am sure of." A low chuckle rippled through his mind before her presence faded entirely, leaving Damon alone with his thoughts.