Master of Dominion-Chapter 73: Withered Vermins

The Withered Husk that was once Arzuk blinked slowly as it examined its claws in slight confusion and shock.

’What... I thought I died,’ the creature tried to speak, but only wet, guttural sounds echoed from its bizarre mouth.

’What has happened to me?’ Arzuk or what remained of him suddenly felt bits of memories resurface in its fractured mind.

Memories of the last scene Arzuk’s eyes had witnessed flooded back, along with a rush of raw emotions of fear, regret, desperation, and a gnawing hunger for power.

It recalled the blurry battle between a once-distant figure its host had feared and bowed to, and another figure that had displayed the very power it always desired.

It was obvious that the Withered Husk wasn’t truly Arzuk, as he was dead, but the parasite hadn’t just taken over his corpse; it had claimed his lingering memories and emotions, which had attracted it in the first place. Now, it even saw itself as Arzuk, though it only carried two primary driving emotions.

One was the typical instinctual drive a Withered had toward Aether which in its case was converted into a hunger for power. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The second was pure hatred. It held absolute hatred toward those who had caused its death which were the cult, the sisters, and that human.

Yet even as it could sense an abundance of aether a few meters away, its budding intelligence told it to ignore its hunger and take a more sinister approach.

The Withered husk moved its limbs toward the pull of its hunger, making sure to avoid the red glow that slipped through the canopy in order to hide its oversized, massive frame.

It strained its serpentine eyes to gaze ahead, where it sensed a dome of pure aether that increased its hunger. It drooled green saliva, forcing itself to resist the urge to feed. Suddenly, it recoiled as its extended senses touched upon something else that made it shiver,something that reeked of the figure its host had awed at before his death.

It retreated in fear, but also in hatred. It didn’t know why, but it felt a burning desire to consume that figure, as if by doing so, it could truly claim the power it desired.

Its fear clashed with its desire to devour, but then it felt something a certain tug that was different from its hunger. This one felt more like it was attached to countless strings that extended to the entire woods around it being pulled.

Through instinct alone, it tugged at this string, which caused a Withered spawn not far away to veer toward it, denying its own hunger to follow this higher life form.

The Withered husk that was Arzuk felt the submissiveness radiating from the weaker spawn, giving the not-so-intelligent creature a sinister idea.

...

Rael felt a sudden chill that made him rush out of his longhouse all the way to the compound gate to see if the sisters and Xaphxan were safe.

"What the hell was that feeling?" He tilted his head in bewilderment, baffled by the creeping sensation he’d picked up through his Dominion Senses.

’Hmm, I might have to be more vigilant’. Though he felt safer within the arrays of his territory, he was not about to ignore what seemed like a warning from his sharpest senses. Rael chose to summon his status panel

[Host Interface]

[Name: Rael Drakul]

[Age: 22]

[Rank: (Tier 3) Iron Fighter]

[Aether Capacity: 16.7%]

[Aether Limit: 20%]

[Stats]

[Strength: 14]

[Agility: 13.5]

[Endurance: 18]

[Will: 21]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Aether Reserves: 15%]

[Aether Manuscript: WarMaster Scripture I (Phase: Iron Path Initiated)

[Aether Techniques: Blood Rend Technique,WarMaster’s Precision]

[Aether Spells: Eye of Critic]

[Quest Logs]

[Tier 1: Locate Four Resource Points ]

Objectives: Discover four resources that could benefit the growth of the host’s territory

Reward :furnace of Hephaestus blueprint

Completion:2/4

[Tier 2: Slay 100 Withered Spawns ]

Description: Charge and meet this corruption head on and rid the lands of this blight

Reward:????

Completion:28/100

[Tier 3: Slay a Withered Husk ]

Description:Face an higher form of the corruption’s spawn and purge it

Reward:???

Completion:0/1

[Tier 4: Survive the Withered Nights ]

Status: Active

Objectives: Endure the Withered Nights a time when corruption floods the lands and sanity rots

Rewards:????

Completion:in 49 hours, 35 minutes, 22 seconds

Rael’s attention lingered on the Tier 3 quest that glowed red. He honestly didn’t like what that implied, but putting it aside, he paid more attention to the completion of his other quests.

"An hour and thirty-five minutes until the next night," he murmured, staring at the bloodied sky. "Doesn’t seem as bad as it was hyped, though," he wondered out loud, seeing as they had survived the first night easily.

"Doesn’t mean I’ll say no to contingencies, though." He shifted his attention to his weakest stat ,embarrassingly enough used to be his Intelligence which now even surpassed some of his main stats.

He was mostly happy about this because he now had a better chance with the Thunder Circuit manuscript, his compatibility with the spell having reached 42%.

Though still on the lower side, it guaranteed a small chance of success. However, even with the compatibility, the significant difference between a warrior and a spellcaster was a barrier he still had to break. He had learned that unlike an aether warrior, who refined their veins at Rank 1 and their heart at Rank 2, spellcasters refined their minds, creating a mental space within their head.

But this was Rael’s crude conclusion, as the Thunder manuscript detailed many other things, like creating circuits within the mind and the body.

There was no way he could do all that since he was already treading the warrior’s path, but he knew he had an ace of his sleeves, the fact that he was already able to cast the Eye of Critic spell.

So, he felt that instead of mastering the manuscript as a whole which might prove impossible he should see if he could learn the Thunderbolt spell specifically.

Which required his mind to circulate aether through the circuits already formed in the body to charge up electrons to a very high voltage,then projecting it with his mind into a single bolt

Now , honestly all this felt like science fair to him but he figured he could replicate the use of the mind with just his usual usage of aether through his veins but then came the difficult part ,he didn’t have circuits

"How to go about that,mmhm I might have to tear him open" it would seem he might need xaphxan to shed more light on it ,a thing he should have done before anyways.

BOOM

His ears perked up to the obvious signs that another swarm had arrived,he quickly chewed on a few tasteless jerkies before heading to the "Frontline" to see if he would be needed , except Rael would come to be shocked by this third swarm