Chapter 165: Fight Fire with Fire
Chapter 165: Fight Fire with Fire
The black slabs looked deliberately placed at first glance, as if it were the remnants of an ancient road that had long been abandoned and shattered into nothing but ash now. But after taking a few careful steps across them, Rohan realised there was no pattern to their arrangement.
’Just another odd feature of this planet’s already weird geography. Though, this is an entirely new universe to me — every planet could be like this in the Greater Universe for all I know.’
Some pieces sat flat on the ground, while others jutted upward at awkward angles — he had to be careful not to let Hestia’s boots catch on them in fear that their sharp edges might tear right through them.
Ash gathered in the cracks between them, forming shallow grey drifts that shifted whenever the wind scraped by.
Rohan slowed his pace. The fog valley was behind him now, but the absence of visible creatures did nothing to reassure him. In fact, it made him more uncomfortable. At least with the fog creatures, he knew where not to go. Out here, the dangers were hidden beneath silence, stone, and distance. Every dark lump could be a rock. Every rock could be asleep. Every patch of ash could be soft ground, poison, or the mouth of something waiting patiently for an ignorant idiot to step on it.
’This place is doing horrible things to my trust issues...’ Rohan thought, testing the next slab with the butt of Hestia’s spear before placing his weight on it.
It held up, just like the others he’d stepped on before it.
He moved forward.
The field stretched farther than he expected. It rolled gently downward across the bleak plain, broken by shallow gullies where ash had accumulated in thick ribbons. The violet sky overhead gave everything a bruised, dreamlike tint, while the thin silver streaks drifting between the clouds cast occasional flashes across the terrain. Whenever they brightened, the stone seemed almost wet, gleaming for an instant before returning to dull black.
’There’s definitely some fine dust, or ground up glass, mixed in with these ashy black slabs.’ The occasional shine they gave off whenever hit by something other than violet light told him this.
And Rohan was not a fan of these flashes of silver light.
He paused whenever the silver light strengthened, crouching low and waiting to see if anything reacted. The first few times, nothing happened. This could all just be his excessive paranoia of being in a completely new, completely unknown place settling into his mind.
But it was far better to be cautious than charge in recklessly and lose his life because of it.
On the fourth flash, he noticed the ash between two slabs trembling softly, as if something beneath the surface had stirred in response.
He didn’t spot anything crawling out of the ground, but that wasn’t enough to warrant him continuing on in that same direction.
’Good to know. The sky doing weird things makes the ground do weird things. Very normal universe, Hestia. Extremely welcoming as well.’ Rohan thought, full of sarcasm.
His sarcasm helped to ease his unease, even if only slightly. It gave his thoughts somewhere to go other than panic. Panic was useless unless it came with movement — rapid movement, preferably in the opposite direction of the origin of his panic — and Rohan had already decided he would rather be afraid and alive than brave and dragged under a field of ash by something he never saw coming.
After circling around the trembling patch, he stopped behind a crooked slab and tried to steady himself. His throat burned again. The bitter taste in the air had worsened now that he had left the fog valley, becoming drier and harsher, as though each breath carried powdered metal — which was likely true. He lifted a hand to his chest and focused on Molten Assimilation.
’The description said that I can take on the features of any compatible metal and minerals into my body — perhaps this’ll ease the the pain of fine metal dust entering my lungs every time I breathe?’
Warmth bloomed in his lungs, spreading outward in a controlled pulse. It was not comfortable in the slightest, but it dulled the worst of the irritation. The first inhale afterward still tasted vile, but it no longer scraped quite so painfully against the inside of his throat.
In fact, despite the vile taste, he even started to feel like his body suddenly gained twice as much vigor as before. ’Is this the Assimilation effect in play?’ Rohan wondered.
It definitely felt like his body was gaining more energy than expending energy now — which was a very welcome surprise no matter the reason.
He let that effect remain on passively while he continued onwards. The energy expenditure of Molten Assimilation was lower than his gains right now, so theoretically, he could keep it up forever if this balance remained stable!
His gaze returned to the ash filled gullies.
’Molten Assimilation also mentions Ash. Does this mean I can adapt to this stuff as well?’
The idea was tempting, to say the least. Too tempting, really. If he could assimilate the qualities of the Ashen Marches themselves, then he could effectively turn this hostile environment into his own natural habitat if he played his cards right.
The place would become less of a death trap and more of a resource if so — with the only remaining threats being the still unknown, and frankly terrifying creatures that inhabit the place.
This alone was enough to make Rohan hesitate and falter.
It just made too much sense.
He stood there for a few more seconds, staring at the ash filled gullies between the black slabs. Rohan had already seen the ground tremble in response to the occasional silver flashes overhead, still unknown whether that was a natural reaction, or if it was caused by something living beneath it.
’This is exactly the sort of thing that gets someone killed,’ Rohan thought, lips pressing into a thin red line. ’I find one useful effect, immediately get greedy, then shove foreign death ash into my body because a glowing status panel said it would work.’
He looked down at his hands.
His fingers were normal. Despite activating Molten Assimilation and letting his body attune itself with the metal particles in the air. ’If this were back in the Origin Realm, my whole body would be covered in molten rock and lava right now.’
’Ah to hell with it. If I don’t test it now, I’ll have to test it later when I’m more tired, more desperate and probably being chased by something with one too many limbs.’
That was it, he made his decision.
Rohan crouched beside one of the gullies, keeping most of his weight on the black slab underneath him. He didn’t deign to touch the ash immediately. Instead, he carefully studied it.
It was narrow enough that he could leap back if something moved, and shallow enough that he could see the dark stone beneath the surface in some places
A few curls of ash slid over each other like dried snow, except much darker, heavier and mixed with faint glittering specks that caught all the violet light.
Repeating his previous actions, he used the butt of Hestia’s spear in his left hand to disturb the ash, parting it as he did so.
Nothing lunged out, like he was afraid of.
A sudden gust of wind hissed over the slabs, giving him a slight fright, but it was nothing in the end. Far behind him, the fog valley returned to silence, and by now its pale mist was little more than a pale smear at this distance.
’Okay, a tiny amount at first. The moment anything feels wrong, I’ll stop!’
He reached out and touched the ash.
It was colder than expected.
Compared to the rest of the lands, as well as the air itself, it was quite a bit lower in temperature. ’Which is even more odd, considering what this thing’s origins should be...’
Ash was commonly found after something had quite literally burned to a crisp — it was synonymous with everything hot — so for it to actually be cold to the touch when everything else was warm or even hot was quite oxymoronic.
Rohan immediately focused his Molten Assimilation on it.
The skill responded the same way it did with the air. Warmth moved through his chest, down his arm, and into his fingertips. The ash stuck to him as his skin quivered slightly, as if each grain of ash had suddenly become aware of itself, and aware of Rohan.
The sensation quickly changed. The Ash accepted Rohan’s call without resistance, and it offered up all its properties for him to take advantage of. Its dryness, weight, abrasion, and most importantly, its combustibility.
His skin quickly stared to take on the same colour of the Ash itself, and Rohan couldn’t help but comment:
’I wonder if this will protect me from heat and fire, or do the exact opposite, and make me more susceptible to it?’
A sudden memory of an Awakened he held a particular dislike for came to his mind. ’Maybe I can mimic Rudith, and start fighting everything with fire?’