A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 174: Deep Inside the Bloody System

Chapter 174: Deep Inside the Bloody System

When I awoke, I was in some kind of flesh chamber thing. It seemed to be an airway based on the constant flow of high winds going through this area.

I looked around and saw that the slimes had waited for me to wake up, and I was expecting to see ten of them as I normally do, but no, there was still nine. Maybe they only increase in number under certain conditions, like getting stuck in a trap or fighting a boss? Those seem to match up with what I’ve seen for the most part.

Anyways now that I was awake the slime once again resumed their movement and I dutifully followed from behind as they went into one of the fleshy tunnels.

We went through them for a while, and even came across some sinister wind spirits, but they didn’t seem to notice us as they flew by.

Eventually we came across some sort of channel filled with blood. The slimes hopped in without hesitation. Thankfully it didn’t seem to be that deep, at least not where they were, so I carefully followed their path which was easy enough.

Some time passed and the blood got deeper, all the way up to my waist, but the slimes seemed to just float atop it all, meanwhile I unfortunately had to trudge through it all.

It soon reached above my waist and I had to twist my body to move myself easier through this never ending river of blood.

Also, if this is supposed to be a blood vessel, then why is there so much space here? Though, I suppose if this was copied to be an exact replica, then I don’t think anyone would be able to get through this unless they could breathe underwater or something.

Still, I was glad that it was designed in a way that it would be possible for normal beings like myself to complete, yet was still challenging enough to actually test me. I don’t think any of the other dungeoneers would be able to make it as far as I did, nor do I think they would want to, what they want is on the first floor, they don’t necessarily need to go further than that. I also don’t think they could even beat the first boss either, so there’s that added to the equation.

Either way, I just needed to be able to follow these slimes, I still don’t know why, but I just feel like I have to follow them to the end. I don’t know why, but the feeling I get from them, is that they only want to help me.

It’s really weird, but I trust them, they haven’t done anything to make me think otherwise thus far, so I’ll continue to follow them either until I die, or I make it to wherever they want to take me, which might be the end of the dungeon for some reason. Or at least that’s what I was guessing.

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Several hours later, I was now swimming and I could feel that the flow of the blood was picking up a pace. It seemed that we were getting close to something, the heart maybe? Who knows, all I need to do is follow the slimes.

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Turns out my guess was right, as we came across another passage that seemed to integrate with ours, meaning that we were headed towards the heart, otherwise the paths wouldn’t converge like this.

Now I just needed to get there without drowning, which seemed to seem like more and more of a possibility the more blood there was, as that would mean more of it would be rushing around and throwing me under the surface.

It took me a lot of effort to achieve that, and even more to stay focused on following the slimes as we slowly came across more and more intersections where more and more blood flowing in from, making it harder and harder to do this.

It was getting harder and harder, but I kept pushing myself to do this.

Actually...

’I can make this easier for myself if I just use all of those Stat Points that I haven’t been using because I keep forgetting about them. How many do I even have right now? Status.’

[Ding!]

[Stat Points: 510]

’Holy shit! Five hundred and ten!?! I really have forgotten about this, haven’t I? Whatever, this is good news now because it means that this task will become much easier.’

The conversion rate doesn’t seem to have changed either, no wait, it has.

[2 = +1,000 HP]

[2 = +500 MP]

[2 = +1,000 SP]

[2 = +600 Strength]

[1 = +1,000 Defence]

[1 = +750 Magic]

[1 = +400 Magic Defence]

[1 = +500 Agility]

[3 = +25 Speed]

[2 = +800 Stamina]

[2 = +750 Charm]

Seems like some of it got more expensive while some also increased in cost. The problem is that although some of them display numbers, I won’t know what those numbers will be in future, and I don’t think I’ll ever know again as I don’t know if this can be fixed like a broken blade, this seems to be something stemming from my soul.

I shouldn’t get distracted, I need to choose what to sink my Stat points into. Actually, what’s my current Stamina at right now?

[Stamina: 61.61%]

Is it worth getting more? I’m not sure if it will increase my actual stamina in this state or not.

’Arhg! I don’t have time to decide! I just need to pour points into it! Fifty should do.’

As I finished my debating I sank fifty of my five hundred points into stamina. And the effects were instant, I felt like I have more stamina.

[Ding!]

[+20,000 Stamina]

[Stamina: 61.57% -> 79.31%]

Holy hell! That’s one hell of a boost? Twenty percent? Damn! Maybe I should add more? No, not yet, I need to add more to the others first. Starting with the rest of my unknown stats.

[Ding!]

[+25,000 HP]

[HP: 99.87% -> 99.97%]

’Wait what? My HP went down? Why? Is it because of the currents? Or is it because of the blood itself? Whatever, onto the next stat.’

[Ding!]

[+25,000 MP]

[MP: 100% -> 100%]

[+25,000 SP]

[SP: 89.11% -> 96.65%]

Huh, seems like my MP didn’t change because I haven’t used it so far, I probably should do though, would make things a lot easier. As for my SP, I guess I have been using a lot of willpower to get through all of this.

Still, this leaves me with a little over three hundred points left still. I should put some into speed and agility, that should help me in my current situation.

[Ding!]

[+25,000 Agility]

[Agility: 10,600 (+5,000) -> 35,600 (+5,000)]

Holy shit! I did not expect that! That’s way more than I was expecting. Still, every little helps, and this helps way more than just a little.

Time to see what speed looks like now.

[Ding!]

[+1,500 Speed]

[Speed: 265 -> 1,765 (+200)]

OH. DEAR. FATHER!

That’s insane! These effects were also immediate as I almost tripled in speed and was about to crash into the slimes if not for the fact that they sped up also.

With all this increase in strength, I need to up my defences as well. My physical seems alright but my magical seems to be sorely lacking, so I’ll dump some points there as well, and I guess the rest into strength because you can never go wrong with more strength.

[Ding!]

[+20,000 Magic Defence]

[Magic Defence: 12,200 -> 32,200 (+10,000)]

[+15,000 Strength]

[Strength: 38,000 -> 53,000 (+11,000)]

I decided to increase the potency of my magic as well alongside my strength. So I’m using some points for that instead.

[Ding!]

[+37,750 Magic]

[Magic: 31,000 -> 68,500 (+12,500)]

I still have fifty points left over... I’ll just save them for now. I need to focus once again on following the slimes, which has become significantly easier now that I’ve increased my strength.