There were few things more terrifying than being lost in a dungeon of true death far above your level. Chloe had no doubt this was one of those rare cases of things more terrifying. Corrupted birds were the least of their worries. Any single monster in this... nest was far below her true level, but her mortal body couldn’t actually keep up with a fight of her level. Even her magic circuits were too weak. She’d power leveled herself and Sae both to levels 53 and 48, respectively, yet even that wasn’t enough. They needed to level, they needed to evolve. Doing so here would be difficult; Sae’s simple outburst and its result were proof of that. If they could find some of the weaker Corrupted Schwæri Raptor, preferably low-tier three; then the party could maybe gain a few levels.
Walking at the rear of the group, that thought made her think about evolution in more depth. She was already mid-tier two, but how would she evolve when she makes it to level one hundred? This body didn’t have a rival soul to deal with and she’d been down this road before. Evolving her mortal shell this early in its development? She couldn’t help wondering what kind of being she could become. Her eyes landed on Alicia; she was closer to evolving. They could use the boost in power but did they have the time? Down here, where they could be found by those monsters at any moment? It would be easier if she could use mind magic, but Chloe had this nagging feeling she’d need to use her true power sooner rather than later.
A click, clack echoed down the chamber. Then it came again, closer this time. The group froze. Sae trembled, glancing fearfully behind them. Alicia reacted quickly, forcing them forward. Opening a door on the left, she peered within and then ushered them into the room. Chloe took a brief look around. It looked to be a storeroom, the walls were lined with shelves. One section contained simple tools, the next had neatly folded blankets and nesting material. Another section of shelves was lined with potions, while another had bandages, antidotes and disinfectants.
The clacking echoed, closer now. Carefully the girls concealed themselves and Chloe reinforced their concealment with the same spell she’d used to hide her real body just the day before when she’d learned about the ovary harvesting. The spell in question, Veil of False Air, was advanced dark magic, well beyond what she’d told Alicia she was able to do. Yet now wasn’t a time to hide her abilities. It was pretty simple, it concealed the target by making them outwardly appear as if they were the air by creating a veil around the target. Light magic was better for stealth, but Chloe couldn’t use it. She’d tried long ago. It was just her own nature more than anything.
A moment later, the door swung open again. A harpy entered the room, their talons clacking on the floor, while a couple of Raptors could be seen in the hall. Beside them a pair of tigerkin girls followed the harpy into the room. She gestured at the potions and medicine. “Get me two bandage kits, one potion of regeneration, and a poultice.” As one of the girls ran up to grab those, she addressed the other. “As for you, grab a knife, fresh nesting material, and a blanket.”
Chloe watched them work for a second, then focused on the harpy. With barely a thought, she analyzed her.
Name: Niri Greytalon
Race: Corrupted Schwæri Harpy
Health: 100%
Level: 210
Shields: 50,000/50,000
Mana: 40,000/40,000
Low tier four, she thought. Close quarters, neither side will be able to use big spells. Unfortunately their party was mage heavy, she kinda wished they’d brought Derrick along. Just one more physical fighter would have helped immensely. She almost laughed at the irony. The firepower and versatility of a good mage usually trumped physical power and here they find it to be what they were sorely missing. For this party however, a tier four harpy might as well have been a dungeon boss, but if needed Chloe figured she could deal with Niri’s shields. Hopefully the harpy just left, the nest might be on alert already but no need to let them know what level they were on.
The girls quickly gathered what they were asked to grab. Yet the harpy started strutting around the room, peering around shelves, a frown on her face. She looked at the helper girls, “Head on back without me, Swifteye will escort you.”
The pair of beastkin nodded and hurried out the door. Speaking briefly to the birds before vanishing out of sight. Chloe frowned, why hadn’t she gone out with them? Could it be she knew they were here? The harpy poked her head behind the shelf with nesting material. Nearby Sae squirmed only to be steadied by Myshi’s hand. Just a little to the left and both would be found. The harpy pulled back muttering to herself. Chloe leaned closer to Alicia, speaking quietly, “I think she knows we are here.”
“Agreed, do you have a plan?”
She nodded, “Strike first, you and I will cast our strongest single-target direct damage spells. Niri has fifty thousand shield points, so we need to do a lot of damage, but this store room is too small to really maneuver. Our first strike needs to be potent. I think we should wait until she is near Ellie.”
Alicia thought for a moment, “Not bad, and I agree. Ellie should catch on. Might be better if we could coordinate with Sae and Myshi. More magic could help.”
“I could drop my shield protecting you, but...”
Alicia shook her head, “Don’t risk it. My mind would cloud in an instant and who knows what I would do.”
“So, we are agreed?”
Alicia nodded. Chloe focused on the harpy, and picked one of the strongest attack spells she could use given the limits her mortal body imposed on her. She really needed to evolve sooner, rather than later. Getting to at least tier five, would allow her to use her full power; well, briefly anyway. But that would make things way easier for her, and it would get better as her mortal body advanced in tier. Spell picked, she began to channel her chosen elements. Death magic was quite powerful, but it wasn’t the right choice here. Instead she’d picked a multi-element spell channeling lightning, fire, earth, water, wind and dark, making it a storm spell, Theta Class: Dark Storm Lance.
Mana compressed into her palms, her mana circuits stressed to the limits, so she used her spiritual ones to compensate, but she had to lower the power to prevent crippling herself with the sheer power of the spell. Beside her Alicia worked a spell of water, and lightning. The room boomed as she declared her spell in the same instant, Chloe declared hers, voices overlapped as the world itself seemed to speak. “Hydro Shock Pulse, Dark Storm Lance!”
From Alicia’s position a dense stream of charged water shot forth. While Chloe’s attack manifested as a stream of dense dark water encased in swirling razor sharp winds, and boiling steam, charged with crackling lightning and laced with sharp grains of glass, sand and other contaminants. Both spells slammed into the harpy at the same moment. The harpy, having sensed the attacks, had tried to dodge; but she didn’t have the space to move, nor the time to put more than a token defense up. A quickly formed light ward that couldn’t even take a fraction of either hit, the beams tore into her shields. Chloe’s attack punched right through and shredded her right wing, while Alicia’s took a chunk of Niri’s thigh.
Wounded, she now faced them with a smile. A quick spell cast caused her wounds to start healing. “Ah, perfect! I knew something was off. Iria will be so pleased when I round you up. Now, where are your friends?”
Ellie took that as her cue to burst from behind the shelf she’d been hiding behind, sending bandages and potions clattering on the floor. Several bottles shattered on impact, in the same moment her axe was swinging. Talons met blade in a fierce crash. Just as two Raptors burst into the room, cawing. Before they could do anything, their cruel gazes fell on each other. They cawed again before engaging each other in a vicious melee. Claws tearing into each other with brutal savagery, creating a mess of torn feathers, blood and skin.
Chloe started channeling another spell, even as she took in what was no doubt Myshi’s mind magic at work. She was just glad that some of the weaker birds were vulnerable. It was harder to mind-control a higher-level target, especially if that target was magically inclined.
Lightning slammed into the harpy, her shields flaring to absorb it. Yet Chloe could tell they were strained. Both her spell and Alicia’s had piercing effects so they’d done some damage. With a thought, she pulled up the harpy’s status.
Name: Niri Greytalon
Race: Corrupted Schwæri Harpy
Health: 92% (Lightly wounded)
Level: 210
Shields: 19,052/50,000
Mana: 38,957/40,000
This was going to be a fight alright, no doubts about that. Done charging her spell, Chloe stepped forward and unleashed another spell. This time of a much lower classification, Zeta class. “Storm Cannon!” From her palms, powerful bolts of dragon lightning wrapped around a sphere of razor-sharp winds, and roiling hail shot forth. Each one slammed into the harpy with devastating force. Her shields flared as she projected several wards to block the barrage.
Alicia supported her with a powerful spell of sound and lightning. “Thunderstruck Pulse!”
The room shook, her ears rang as a powerful boom tore into the harpy’s shields. Followed by lightning slamming into her defensive barriers. Just as she conjured up a stream of water, to weave between the strikes of her claws. Ellie engaged talons and Axe met each other in a string of blows each more sure than the last. Chloe could tell that Fake Ellie had better learned the original’s techniques. Yet she couldn’t help notice her starting to weave spirit magic into her attacks. Blows hitting harder than they should have, others striking air when they should have found flesh.
Sae, realizing her spells weren’t doing much to the Harpy, cast lightning at the two brawling raptors. Her lightning spell tore into the one on the left, damaging it but critically stunning the beast just long enough for the other one to rip its throat out.
Chloe, realizing the danger, redirected her next attack at it. This time once more casting, “Dark Storm Lance!”
The dark beam of swirling storm tore into the unfortunate creature. Its pained squawking filled the room as flesh and bone were shredded and charred and boiled in the same instant. The beam ripped right through its core, leaving a fatal wound. Organs now gone and life fluid leaking from the gaping wound, the creature perished in a mere instant. In the corner of her eye, she was blessed with numerous level-up notifications as the world rewarded her for her contribution in killing the foul beast.
The harpy screamed, “How dare you!”
Ah shit! She’s mad now. Enraged, she swung her talons brutally at Ellie. While cascading streams of water barraged the woman. Ellie danced around the blows. Weaving the footwork of an expert warrior with that of an experienced spirit dancer. Not a single strike marred her skin, while leaving the enraged harpy open to blow after blow from their spells. Myshi sent bolts of fire into her shields, while Sae’s lightning and wind tore into them. While Chloe and Alicia pummeled her with powerful spells. Whenever she tried to switch targets, Ellie would flow around the field to block her.
Eventually the harpy went down, and her vision was filled with additional level up notifications. Yet she had no real time to review them. Alicia looked between the harpy, Ellie and Chloe, questions were plain as day in her eyes. Instead of asking she said, “Let’s get out of here. Now, before anyone else shows up.”
The girls didn’t need to be told twice, they rushed out of the room. Just in time, too, as not long after they vanished behind a corner, they heard the clack of talons on the stone floor. Something was coming. They moved away from them. Turning again at the sound of more talons on the floor, they fled through the corridors, using sound to guide them away from the enemies. Taking down one harpy and her two friends had been challenging enough, they didn’t have the mana to keep taking fights like that, even if they leveled up more.
A shadow up ahead, made Chloe and company pause. Something moved in the passage beyond and almost on reflex Chloe tried to identify it. What she saw made her go pale.
Name: Liera
Race: Corrupted Lizarna Elder Wrym
Health: 100%
Level: 703
Shields: 548,340/548,340
Mana: 610,107/610,907
It was tier fucking nine. What kind of fucking hell was this place? Chloe and company stood frozen as they watched the massive beast slither past. Yet it barely even paid them notice. For a moment there she didn’t even think it knew they were there. Then suddenly it flexed its mental muscles. Chloe felt her shielding spells shatter. Myshi, Sae and Alicia went stock still as their eyes glazed over, then the creature lost interest. She restored the shields and watched it go. Glad it had no interest in messing with them and she knew it could have done something, yet it seemed to do nothing.
For several minutes they didn’t do anything, then very deliberately went the opposite direction from where it had gone. None of them had any desire to see the creature again.
Reaching the end of a passage, the girls climbed a set of stairs cautiously. There was noise above, but the way out was up as well. Hopefully, with the commotion they’d caused elsewhere, they were less alert here.
Chloe peered around the top of the stairs and relaxed. There weren’t any harpies here at all. She gestured the others up and they approached a door on the left. Carefully, they looked inside. Chloe cast a spell to conceal them; her veil, while not perfect, had proven quite helpful.
Within the room, dozens of pregnant beastkin were working. Dozens of tables lay scattered about the room upon which a single bird rested on each. The modified tables allowed them to rest with their belly exposed without much discomfort. Nearby she could see a younger beastkin, shifting feathers aside to reveal a fleshy pouch. She secured the feathers with a pin, then used a short knife. A gentle shallow cut along the base of the pouch. The bird didn’t complain.
The beastkin ran her hand along the opening, then, seemingly satisfied, walked on to the next table. A door on the right side of the room swung open, admitting three more beastkin each pushing a cart laden with cargo she recognized. Jars set in crates, with each jar containing ovaries suspended in alchemical jelly. The three girls unpacked the crates and set each jar on shelves near the door which were full of ovaries. Another beastkin came over and collected several jars and headed to hand them out to tables needing them.
Nearby the bird with the open pouch, gained attention from a new beastkin girl, with a jar of ovaries in hand. Carefully she pulled a pair out, and inserted them into the pouch. Once inside, she pressed on the slit of the pouch before releasing the feather pins. The bird squawked, then hopped off the table before vanishing into a tunnel on the other side of the room. A new bird arrived from another tunnel at the back and took the same spot.
They’d found their exit it seemed. Unfortunately it seemed to be rather busy. On the other hand, she now knew for certain what was happening to the stolen ovaries. Alicia spoke up quietly, “Lets look around the area, see if there isn’t an alternate exit. Unless you have a spell to get us past, Chloe?”
Chloe glanced into the room, then nodded, “I can do it.”
She didn’t explain, instead focusing on her spell. Wind gathered in her palms, which soon filled with a dark fog. “Mist of Dreams!” A dark purple and green mist with swirls of pink rippled from her hands and into the room. With the added wind, it filled the room quickly.
Everything in the room, slumped into slumber within seconds. Well almost everything a couple of birds remained somewhat alert, but the others sprang into action, quickly taking care of them. Path clear for now, Myshi weaved some mind spells and the group hurried through the door where the fresh ovaries had come from. There was a ramp just past there, and they took it up further. Each step taking them towards the city and out of the nest. Yet not quite out of trouble.