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Chapter 1515 - Corruption Wakes
🕑 Added 2025-01-06 01:40:07 +0000 UTCDeep in the Dungeon, where the mana boiled and billowed, so thick the pressure of it could crush a man to death, a creature stirred from its deep sleep.
Tremors echoed out from the entity as its consciousness began to return. Flashes of sensation penetrated the dreams that still held its mind, great heat and slight discomfort after centuries without moving. In small increments, wakefulness returned, sleep relinquishing its grip.
It was a difficult thing, to awaken from such depths, and the creature idly wondered, as it lazed in a state of half-awake, half-asleep, just how long the process had already taken.
Months perhaps. Years, maybe. It didn’t matter. This process had repeated itself many times over already, and would repeat many times more, unless the twentieth was found and the prison was finally broken.
Mana surged out from the core, an unfathomable torrent of power, and the creature sucked it in greedily. As the energy poured through its limbs, the creature rose steadily to consciousness, finally bursting through and opening its eyes.
Theorazzn was awake.
The Decaying World stirred alongside its master. A thick soup of toxin, poison, acid and decay, even mana itself was not immune from its corruption, the energy breaking apart, rotting, then reforming into something new. In this place, all things were remade in Theorazzn’s image.
One by one, the Ancient stirred each of its limbs. Thick and powerful, each of the five arms flexed, drinking in the foulness that drenched them and using it to strengthen themselves. From beneath its massive body, ten legs unfolded and tested the ground, pushing Theorazzn up as its eyes extended atop long stalks.
At once, a dominating aura swept through the Decaying World, sending the denizens of that place fleeing into their dens, using their cunning and skills to conceal themselves. These were the most toxic and poisonous monsters in the entire Dungeon, yet they knew what to do when the Ancient was awake: hide. For those who were caught by Theorazzn, only the most dreadful of fates awaited.
Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, the Ancient extended its senses throughout its domain, trying to grasp what had changed over the passage of time. Hunger was there, deep within, a yawning void that would need to be filled, but that could wait, for the moment. First, the Ancient would listen, and learn.
It didn’t take long until Theorazzn felt another consciousness reach out to its own, a tenuous connection that limited contact between the two vast minds.
[You have awoken, Theorazzn?]
Deep and bestial, the voice rattled like the dying sigh of an aged wolf.
[Odren. How unusual for you to take a break from hunting.]
Theorazzn skittered from side to side, feeling strength and power return with every passing second. The Father of Monsters growled, a flash of savage teeth snapping across their connection.
[The hunt has gone well. This Cycle shows great promise.]
For the first time in centuries, Theorazzn felt a trickle of interest. For Odren to say this much, the old monster must have caught something with real potential. Perhaps there was a chance for them after all? A way out of this cage.
[Who else is awake?] Theorazzn asked.
[Many. Tarriflyx awoke recently. Arconidem and Carriflare before that. Lerrewyn is awake, along with Braxxin and Kygar.]
A pause.
[Morribolg is stirring also,] Odren mused.
Theorazzn hissed, an explosion of toxin dissolving everything around the Ancient for a moment, creating a void occupied only by itself. So, the old heap of filth was soon to wake?
[Good,] Theorazzn stated, concealing any anger, [I have not spoken with Moribolg in some time.]
[I wonder why…] Odren wondered, but Theorazzn could practically feel the fellow Ancient’s savage grin.
[Many are stirring now,] Odren continued, [it won’t be long until we are all awake. Then we must choose.]
The toxic Ancient shoved its irritation down and focused. It was a deadly mistake to lose concentration when speaking to its peers, and Theorazzn, cunning and wily, didn’t make such mistakes.
[You seem unusually enthused. Are the prospects really so promising?]
[There are two in the fifth as we speak,] Odren said. [Why not look and see for yourself?]
The fifth? It had been long since Theorazzn had made its presence felt in that place. Unlike Arconidem, who obsessed over his subjects, Theorazzn did not care to dwell on what it achieved in the past.
Yet… if it wanted to… it could.
The two Ancients allowed the contact to fray until it finally broke. Others reached out to their newly awakened member, but Theorazzn rejected their advances. It wanted to think, and to feed.
The mighty beast rose up on its legs and scuttled left and right, letting the ichor and mana flow through its body, working out the kinks from centuries of sleep. As it did so, Theorazzn extended its mind out into the surrounding tunnels. Poison, toxin and venom dripped from the air itself, every surface was in a constant state of being eaten away and regenerating. Nothing could survive here, in the decaying world without being able to survive the most abominable conditions, but now that the master of this place had awoken, the danger would stir to even greater heights.
With every step, Theorazzn sucked in the poison, drank it in as if it were crystal clear water. The mana tried to ravage its insides, to burn, to break down, to savage and destroy, but it couldn’t, instead, the Ancient took from it, drew nourishment and sustenance from the toxin, then returned it, breathing it out twice as potent as it had been before.
The walls around it began to sizzle and dissolve into slurry while Theorazzn grinned, its circular mouth, hidden in the center of its limbs baring its green fangs to the world.
It was time to feast.
Comments
andwhyisit
Oh... yeah, you're right. It was Jim, not Sarah. Found the line in question on page 477. My bad.
alt31415
No, I think that was Jim the traitorous worm who slacked on the core. Remember, Sarah, at Tier 6, killed a mythic demon and ripped out its core so casually it wasn't even shown to us, just "Uh, yeah, I found a mythic demon and... I have its core now."
andwhyisit
Sarah just rushed to each next evolution without maxing anything iirc. She didn't even form a core at Tier 2.
Gonvas
The Kaarmodo vs Bruan’chii war happened also in the 5th. That was the intel the ants had (ch 902). The Grove Keeper also mentioned Bruan’chii getting caught by the Krath. The Bruan’chii is confirmed to be a faction that explores the 5th...
Fabian
Maybe the one using the sometimes-inactive channels to breath.
alt31415
Anthony squandered a lot too. He didn't even learn about the 'max mutations bonus' until going for Tier 5.
andwhyisit
Sarah squandered so much potential during her first few evolutions. I really doubt she has the call. I think the other candidate is a monster we haven't seen yet.
Aeseof
Hmm... The only person that says she 'briefly' heard the call also either believes, or pretends, that Rose is still on the fourth stratum, but she's already descended to the fifth. She was there before the ants moved in. I'm not sure we can take the Keeper at their word that the call is silent now.
Boss Man
Apparently the only word in this chapter I didn’t read was “five” when it described the number of legs the ancient had. That’s what I get for getting excited over a new chapter.
alt31415
Get stick bugged
Rahsheem Reid
RinoZ? Where them Chappy chaps at
Grey Knight Lord
I thought he was some kind of stick insect or something
Drew Lim
Will there be a chapter today?
Gonvas
Rose only had it briefly. She lost lots of her monster potential in her latest evolution (ch 954). She shows clear signs of not being under the call influence with the way she stopped descending and keeps on expanding all the way to the surface. The Legion vs Tree war didn't mention the call and she was already at her current tier of evolution. They went after her because she was a powerful mythic monster that was creating her own faction.
Goldraven
She doesn't have the call, does she?
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter!
Gonvas
I expect the 2nd candidate to be a new character. Rose no longer has the call, Sarah, Odin, ants and 6th stratum monster didn't show any signs of having the call.
Buck
Had not considered Sarah but she is a real possibility. The Mother Tree cannot become an Ancient. She cast that possible future aside in order to create her children, the bruan’chi.
Robothaus
I was thinking elder thing from Lovecraft cause five arms and eyes on stalks with mouth in the middle
DerHochi
Sarah would make the most sense to be the second candidate.
Runaway_Cactuar
Then she will NEVER EVER die haha
Katarak
Maby the second is sara
alt31415
I was picturing more like a starfish, with 5 arms and ten legs underneath it where normally there wouldn't be much.
Boss Man
With the way Theorazzn is being described, it almost sounds like it’s a centipede. If it is, Anthony is going to loose his shit.
Noquele
It seens Anthony wil fight the second in this stratum
alt31415
More and more waking up. The second definitely can't be Tree because she was vetod when she made the Braunchii, 'wasting' her potential. Sarah maybe? We also have maybe confirmation that Odren is the oldest of the Ancients, if even Theorazzn is thinking of him as 'the old monster'.
Buck
Finally! Waiting on more chapters to be released tested my patience. The withdrawals were awful! Hope you enjoyed your break, RinoZ. Glad to have you back writing again.
TheLostGolem
Omg. Leeroy in the spot to become an ancient? No way. Would be hilarious though.
Rahsheem Reid
I think the other is a new character.
Cinnamon Toast
Nah 2 must certainly be Leeroy
Hayden Leech
Can’t be the tree, the tree lost the call when she made the tree dudes.
Rahsheem Reid
Dope lore dive into the ancient’s.
Anthony Romanov
And RinoZ is Back with a Bang!
fair3238
1.Must be Anthony 2.Could be mama tree or sarah or that stalker demon or maybe someone we never knew exist! TFTC
Aaron Schwartz
You see that? That right there, is what I like to call a bad time…
Caleb Herring
Two in the fifth? We all know Anthony is one of them but who would be the second? The Tree? Sarah? Tiny? (Probably not Tiny lol) but who is the second?
Grey Knight Lord
I love each and every Ancient. Theorazyn has risen to a high favorite
