Luna patted my back as five monsters fell to her needles. I looked around, stunned. I hadn't seen her move. Mom always claimed Luna was too loud with her energy. She claimed even a newly awakened black tier could sense her. It was a complete lie. I saw the needles hovering with my eyes and didn't feel a thing with my third eye. Maybe I was untalented or perhaps Mom was exaggerating.
"Is it safe to use my ability?" I asked.
I looked around as a dark shape came into view. I aimed, but the monster stayed out of range and shrieked. It was calling more monsters. I turned, and Luna wasn't doing anything to stop it. More shrieks joined the call.
I manually pulled the spent shells out and reloaded. If I opened the cylinder, my gun would auto-eject all the casings and full rounds.
Despite hours of practice, I fumbled loading. I dropped a round on the ground and squatted to grab it.
"Never let yourself get close to the ground in a dungeon. It tickles a monster's predator instincts." I grabbed the round and loaded my revolver. I pushed my black core into the weapon, but the enchantment would only fire the rounds a little faster. The gun's durability and heat-sink enchantments made it a little tougher to overheat.
Black tier enchantments could only do so much, and a revolver wasn't a big weapon. It was also rounded to use less material and make it lighter. That made it harder to add enchantments. I was rethinking that decision. With double my strength after awakening, a little more material for an enchantment wasn't a bad trade-off.
"Do they scare you?" Luna asked.
"It doesn't matter; I will kill them. I'm not going to run." I said.
Luna snorted. "If I tell you to run, you will." The nearest monster crossed into the distance where I could reliably hit him. Luna placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't let yourself get killed to look brave."
These monsters could regenerate. Their hearts should be in the center left of their chests. None of them wore armor. I fired.
It was the luckiest shot of my life. The monsters shifted into a run. They grouped, and I fired my sixth shot. I began to run and gun. My stamina felt endless. All those drills were finally paying off. I let my hands move reloading before I fired off six shots. I never took my eyes off them. When one reached out to finally get its hands on me, a needle ran it through, or a knife punched a hole in its skull.
Every kill fed my core. I could tell Luna was letting me have the lion's share of it. For her, it was probably useless. When I fired my last shot, Luna made her move. The flying knives cut the rest of the monsters down. Like grass before a mower, they were uniformly diced to bits.
I holstered my pistol and placed a hand on one of the monsters. I felt my essence move from my core into the monster. It burst apart, leaving a pill bottle behind. It was orange with a white top.
Focus Pills
Tier: Black
Rarity: Common
Type: Consumable
Effect: Grants increased +15% concentration for the next six hours.
Stack Limit: 5
This was a problem: essence was needed to ascend, but if I used it all to loot, I wouldn't be able to ascend a tier. Every time I looted it would be a gamble. It was like I was using aura for a skill. I wouldn't even have aura until the next tier.
I placed my hand on another corpse, and my essence entered it. From it, a bloody heart rolled on the ground, covered in small black crystals stretching out like roots. This had to be something I could use. My third eye opened to inspect the item.
Lesser Shub Heart
Tier: Black
Rarity: Rare
Type: Ingredient
Effect: An ingredient with the eldritch affinity. It could be used with alchemy.
Was my comprehension too low? Did I need a background in alchemy to learn more? I didn't want to have to get the Identify skill. At this rate, it was required to use my ability.
Bodies surrounded me, and this was my chance to test my ability.
I wasn't out of essence by any means, and I certainly wasn't out of chupacabra. One by one, their bodies dissolved. A few became ingredients while others became more pills. I gained pills for studying, strength training, and steroids. There was a herb called horny goat weed that promised to make me like a goat in the rut. None of the items were particularly impressive. The one weapon was a spear with a goat's horn at the end. It was a common rarity and had no enchantment.
My essence was running low, and it looked like my ability was actually worthless. The bodies of the monsters might have sold for a few hundred dollars a piece if we could preserve them and get them out of here. Monster corpse spatial bags were expensive, but they practically paid for themselves. Unfortunately, only a yellow-tier ascender could qualify for a loan for one. Unlike houses, which any ascender could walk in and get a loan for. Spacial bags were worth quite a bit. Ascenders could die in a tower, and the bag could be stolen or devoured by monsters.
The last goat dissolved and a pill bottle with a black cap appeared. I touched the lid of the medicine bottle and found it wasn't made of plastic like the others. The cap felt like crystal. I popped it open, and inside was a shining pill.
100 Pure Goats Pill
Tier: Black
Rarity: Epic
Type: Consumable
Effect: The concentrated and purified essence of a hundred slain Negro Chupacabra. When consumed, the essence is released within the user at a steady rate until depleted.
I'd heard of something similar, but if what it said was true, then reaching red tier wouldn't take a year. Essence wouldn't be a problem at all.
I wanted to swallow it. My core was essence-starved, and this would do more than restore what I lost during my looting.
Luna stopped my hand. "Not here. I think we learned a lot about your ability. Gather what you can in a bag and lets head home. Mom will be happy. You did well on your first climb I'm proud of you."