[ 95 ]
I activatedGloom Wraith Phasejust as the notifications came.
System Message: Taranis has entered the realm.
System Message: Emberus has entered the realm.
This deity is too distant to activate your Scavenger’s Daughter.
Penny and I shot forward, zooming through the wall of the creature, stopping somewhere deep in the guts of the beast. Blood showered as we entered the cavernous interior, moving like a bullet. The skill was at level 13, and we tore a hole right into the beast, stopping in the center of its flesh. It let out an angry chitter, but I doubt this hurt it at all.
Uh, Entering Scolopendra.
We tumbled to a stop in the pitch-black, slid, and then stopped at something squishy as the beast continued to wrap around the tree.
You are in the presence of a deity. The Scavenger’s Daughter has opened her eyes. She fills with power.
Temporary effect from Taranis: All of your lightning-based attacks are now 50% more powerful.However, you now take 100% more damage from lightning attacks yourself.
I gasped.Good, good,I thought. The patch was working as Rosetta and Mordecai had said it would.
Despite the splooge, this chamber we’d entered had no air. I’d hoped the splooge would allow us to breathe, but it didn’t seem to work. Did splooge even count as a potion? It acted as one, but I hadn’t really thought about it until just this moment.
Penny started to struggle. A health bar appeared.Damnit.Even with the water breathing I knew she now hadandthe splooge, it didn’t work. I had multiple potions of anti–oxygen deprivation that Mordecai had made for us, and I applied one to myself. I pulled another, ready to smash it against Penny, but I paused. I jumped into the party menu and looked at her stats. Her constitution was only three.
Carl: Penny, what’s your potion cooldown?
If I gave her another potion too quickly, she’d get poisoned.
Penny: I CAN’T SNORT. I CAN’T MAKE BREATHS. I NEED MORE SPLOOGE.
Shit, shit.I hadn’t thought this part through. I dove back into my inventory, looking. An item caught my eye. It was from the pile of jewelry that Mistress Tiatha had set aside, taken from previous crawlers. It was a nipple ring called Petey Motteux’s Little Secret. I didn’t want it, and Donut had refused it. It was too big for her to eat when she had the kneepads, so I had planned on giving it back, but I hadn’t had the time. The large, thick ring gave the wearer the Oxygenated benefit, along with something called the Bawdy benefit, which automatically marked any bars and dance halls and “chocolate houses” on a map. It was just one of hundreds of weird magical items we’d come across.
But for now, it was the only choice we had. I shoved the empty gun into the fancy holster, reached forward until I felta nipple on the pig, and installed the ring by piercing the pig’s flesh.
A new achievement flashed as Penny squealed in surprised pain.
From outside, angry thunder boomed. That was a relief. I’d done it correctly. Taranis wasoutsideScolopendra, and Emberus would be inside, meaning he’d summon at human size. When he was in that form, his presence, in theory, wouldn’t melt the world. I’d never actually seen the god in his regular form. But first we had to get to him.
Mordecai: The splooge is a type of potion, but it’s different than regular kinds. It’s treated more like a food-based buff, so the cooldown rules don’t apply.
Carl: Now you tell me. I just pierced a pig’s nipple.
Mordecai: I don’t know how to respond to that, Carl.
I was worried we’d get stuck in solid flesh, but I’d hoped we’d end up right in the club. Neither happened.
We were in some massive chamber with an uneven, slippery, stinking floor. Already, the hole we’d torn to get here had healed. I dropped a torch, but it didn’t light. I found a goblin sparkler, and I dropped it. That worked.
My map populated. We were close. There was a tube that ran the length of the beast, likely some sort of digestive system. I wasn’t fully up on my kaiju bug anatomy. But the exterior walls of the club were plain on the map, maybe fifty meters away.
“Hang on,” I called as I castOozy Form.
Splatch!
I’d only done this once, and the sensation wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced. I lost my eyes and my ears, and my vision was suddenly all around, and I could see perfectly in the dark. Thanks to the magic of the carrier, Penny was also now a part of me, and I didn’t even want to think how that worked. I aimed for the building wall and slimed my way towardit, pushing through and around and over strange, giant, pulsing organs.
I checked the timer. We had forty seconds until Scolopendra’s next attack.