Chapter 118: Chamber of Fire
The moment the flames burst out, Snare had to relay messages nonstop to keep Thragdur from storming the room with half the fortress. Only after the fire settled, shrinking to a single blinding sphere, did the dwarves back down. The heat still hammered the walls hard enough that Seo-jin felt his armor taking damage. He dismissed the gear before it burned through.
'I don't wanna hear shit.'
[Wasn't gonna say anything. Wasn't even gonna say I told you so, or that I warned you, or that you're an idiot. Wasn't gonna say nothin.]
'Whatever, at least Thragdur's reinforcement worked. Pretty sure the whole damn island felt that.'
[The barrier is impressive. Ask him for the specs later. Perfect upgrade for the Dead Hands.]
He filed the idea away. His mind was locked on the light swallowing the room. He couldn't see Pain inside it, not even a silhouette, but he felt him through the broodlink. Pressure built in the broodling's core, old and violent, the kind of temperature that felt like it should boil marrow.
"The heat in his core is condensing. Didn't know anything alive could hold that much without turning into soup. Even with my resistance I'd melt in there."
[Have you decided your next one? These mutations are seriously fascinating.]
He reached out on instinct, then thought better of it and pulled up his panel instead of risking a cooked item.
"Lilid's bloodline… Hex is out. So it's one of the two new summons, or I sit on it."
His panel slid open under his thumb. Two levels from Vhar'Sith and Lilid. Natural stat bumps. Six AP still unused. And two more brood slots waiting.
"I hate waiting, so I'll just pick one."
[Any thoughts for the other?]
A sharp grin cut across his face.
"Depends on him. For a new experiment I'll set the bar brutally high. If he can't reach it, we carve him open and study what makes them tick."
[Long overdue. Little freaks are mysteries. I wanna see what's inside.]
He scrolled down, the weight of his gains settling in his bones. They were well earned. They were heavy.
[User Name // Wohan Seo-jin]
[User True-Name // Azakh-Tur]
[Entity // Imp / Mawspawn Variant]
[Class // Broodspawn]
[Status // Registered]
[Rank // C]
[Shard Rank // A]
[Flag // Unrecognized Host Detected]
[Titles]
[Kinslayer / Broodfather]
[Level // 22]
[Exp // 17772/20368]
[HP // 880/880 (1350/1350)]
[SM // 51/51]
[ATTRIBUTES]
[STR // 38+10 // B]
[VIT // 37+10 // B]
[AGI // 38 // C]
[INT // 24 // D]
[FLH // 31 // C]
[WIL // 27 // D]
[AP // 0]
[Soul Integrity // 65%]
He needed everything at C before he could evolve. Simple problem. Simple fix. So he dumped three AP into FLH, two into WIL, one into INT. Felt the shift settle under his ribs, clean and cold.
Then he scrolled to the part that mattered, the one gain he hadn't expected from the entire island.
His curses had finally ranked. And a new one waited for him at the bottom of the list.
[Hellfire] and [Fiendskin] had both ranked twice, going from F to D Rank in one go.
[Name // Hellfire]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Curse]
[Sub-Category // Offensive]
[Rank // D]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Effect]
[+20% damage to all melee attacks and +10% Attack Speed while active.]
[Cost // 1 Soulmass to activate / 1 Soulmass per 3sec Upkeep]
[Cast Time // Instant]
[Cooldown // 30 seconds]
["It burns what should not be touched, fed not by flesh, but by the stolen weight of souls."]
[Hellfire]'s jump hit exactly where he needed it, damage doubled, attack speed added. A hungrier curse, but worth feeding.
[Name // Fiendskin]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Curse]
[Sub-Category // Defense]
[Rank // D]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Effect]
[Reduces all incoming physical damage by 15%]
[Cost // 6 Soulmass]
[Cast Time // Instant]
[Duration // 120 seconds]
[Cooldown // 2 minutes]
["You were not born to block blades. You were bred to survive them."]
His defensive curse finally caught up, fifteen percent damage cut, duration doubled, cost heavier. Fair trade.
[Black Pit] had only advanced once, but the shift was enough to reshape entire fights.
[Name // Black Pit]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Curse]
[Sub-Category // Area Control]
[Rank // C]
[Evolve // Yes]
[Effect]
[Creates a 6-meter radius pit of shadow at the targeted location. Enemies inside suffer reduced movement speed –40% and –10% attack speed while inside]
[Cost // 18 Soulmass]
[Cast Time // 2 seconds]
[Duration // 35 seconds]
[Cooldown // 20 seconds]
["The pit doesn't swallow flesh. It swallows momentum."]
Every buff to [Black Pit] earned its price. And with the curse he'd stolen from Lilid, the synergy was obvious.
[Name // Spider Step]
[Type // Active]
[Category // Curse]
[Sub-Category // Movement]
[Rank // C]
[Evolve // No]
[Effect]
[Agility increased by 25%]
[Cost // 6 Soulmass]
[Cast Time // Instant]
[Duration // 120 seconds]
[Cooldown // 3 minutes]
["Where the Spider Queen dances, the ground forgets to hold."]
Once he finished tearing through Lilid's corpse, a feast he didn't share with the brood, that was when the curses shifted. It hadn't come from leveling. He'd assumed skipping the Hexwraith evolution line cut him off from curse growth entirely.
Turned out the truth was simpler.
He only had to eat demons. That was how his curses ranked, and another way to earn new ones.
"It's a shame all her spiderlings died with her. Their webs would've been worth something. Too bad the ones I managed to grab don't fit the blueprint."
[Sell those pistols and you can buy the damn list twice. Still one of the dumbest things you've done. Don't let this little jackpot trick you into thinking otherwise.]
"You could just admit you were wrong. Once I'm wearing it, every point spent will pay out."
He scrolled and pulled the blueprint open, running through the materials line by line.
[Blueprint // Blackfell Longcoat Set]
[Designer // "Needleback"]
[Type // Tailor Pattern]
[Rank // A]
[Category // Formal Combat Suit]
[Overview]
[Pattern and assembly guide for the Blackfell Longcoat Set. Must be tailored to the exact user.]
[Materials Required]
[Fabric / Structural]
[Boltworm Silk Sheets x12]
[Ironweave Fiber Panels x4]
[Leviathan Tendon Spools x2]
[Reinforcement / Layering]
[Phase-Lining Membrane x1]
[Null-Drag Seam Resin Pack x1]
[Cold-Resin Stitch Cord x1]
[Flex-Gusset Insert Kits x2]
[Finishing]
[Bone-Button Fasteners x10]
[Sole-Grip Rubber Plate Set x1]
[Fit-Adjustment Tension Band x1]
[Output]
[One custom Blackfell Longcoat Set.]
[System Effect // Armor Integration Layer]
[Armor bulk removed / weight neutralized / armor merges visually with suit / full defensive and passive effects remain intact / reinforced points gain armor durability.]
[Limitations]
[Suit itself has no defense / armor must touch suit directly / any extra layer breaks integration.]
[Notes]
[Cannot be re-tailored for another user.]
"Last time I checked, most of this crap was floating around the auction. Hope the rest is there. Hunting them myself would be pointless."
He closed the panel and leaned into the warm stone behind him. Pain still burned inside his cocoon of light. However long it took, Seo-jin wasn't moving.
"Once he's done, I'll summon the broodlings. After that it's four more, three levels, then I can evolve again. Wonder if I'm just getting extra limbs or if I'm about to turn into something completely new."
[My theory supports something new.]
He straightened a little, brow twisting.
"This what you tried to bring up earlier?"
[Before you cut me off? Yes. My theory on why I can't predict most of your growth, and why my access to the Broodlings and Grimm is limited.]
Silence stretched...Seo-jin already knew the system was baiting him, but he still bit.
"And what would that theory be?"
[This is only a theory, so hold that in mind—]
Seo-jin rolled his eyes.
[But I believe your evolution and your class have slipped the rails. Your path isn't system-generated anymore. It's system-supported.]
Heat flared from Pain's cocoon, stinging his eyes. Seo-jin lifted a hand and let the words settle.
"That doesn't line up. Imps don't evolve. The only reason I can is because of you."
[Half true. Your original choices, yes—those were system-built. But the option you selected wasn't something the system crafted. I assumed it was an altered branch. Now I believe it was something buried—something dormant—waiting to be unlocked.]
The idea punched through his skull hard enough to leave him frustrated. It felt like an enormous leap. Reading his doubt, the system answered before he could question it.
[The Blood Bead and the Cradlebloom. My analysis shows the bead didn't just empower you—it rewrote your bloodline the same way Pain's refinement is doing now. And the Cradlebloom's whole function is to generate new demon strains. Taken together, those two artifacts didn't create some random new path… they removed a restriction you already had.]
Seo-jin shook his head.
"That still doesn't track. Wouldn't it make more sense to assume the two items fused into some new evolution instead of unlocking a hidden one?"
[If it were a new evolution, the system would be integrated into its framework. I would see the structure, the branching, the projections. But I don't. You're advancing through a pattern I can't map. That only happens when the system steps back and assists, rather than guides. Think of it like this: I'm letting you cast spells no one has taught you, because your blood already knows them.]
The system paused, letting the weight hit.
[Your path isn't being made. It's being remembered. But it's still only a theory.]
"Then the twinbacks?"
[Yours from the start. In theory.]
"If that's true, then I'm stuck wondering how the Imp bloodline got sealed in the first place. Someone do it on purpose? Some natural collapse...? Doesn't matter either way…"
He rose and stepped toward Pain. The fire-shell around his firstborn warped like a furnace wall about to split.
"As long as I keep growing, I don't give a damn about the why."
He set his hand close. The heat punched against his palm, raw and ancient. The surge inside the cocoon was slowing. Pain was almost through.
"If unlocking my bloodline draws trouble later, then we just get strong enough to break whatever shows up. Nothing's stopping me from taking what I want."
As if his words triggered it, a rupture tore through the chamber. A bone-deep concussion that rattled the stone and punched straight through his ribs. Pain's cocoon split down the center, the fault-line glowing white-hot as steam blasted out in a violent burst.
The barrier screamed. Runes along the walls flared like molten brands, each one straining to contain the pressure pouring off the cocoon. The whole room groaned around him, stone flexing, metal rivets seething in their slots, the heat so dense it felt alive.
"Step forward, son. Show me your new power."
The response wasn't words.
It was a roar.
A raw, volcanic bellow that detonated across the island. Every surface shook, floorboards, steel supports, even the air itself bucked from the force. Dust fell in sheets. Dwarves outside shouted over the quake. The fortress trembled like something was trying to punch its way out from the world's spine.
The cocoon tore open.
Flames surged upward in a column that scraped the ceiling and spread fast, gnawing the stone black. Heat rolled over Seo-jin in a pulse that felt like a furnace door ripping free of its hinges.
Through the fire, something moved.
Shoulders. Arms. A torso rising slow, heavy, unhurried, as tall as the Broodfather himself. The silhouette burned through the blaze, its outline hardening with each step, flames parting around it like they refused to touch its skin.
A figure stepped out of the inferno.
And the Broodfather smiled.