Rose looked up at his proclamation, her knuckles white from gripping her knees.
“I have already begun preparations for the ritual that will hide your true nature,” Nick explained evenly. “Right now, your mana is too recognizable. The World obeys your bloodline without demanding a toll, something anyone with good senses, much less a Shadow, would notice. We are going to use a catalyst I have Ogden brewing to scar your mana channels, artificially introducing friction into the flow.”
Arthur suddenly leaned forward, the wooden chair groaning under his weight. “Scar? You want to cripple her?”
“I will be able to reverse the damage once she’s safe,” Nick replied quickly, not wanting any misunderstandings. “The friction will slow and weaken your mana, yes, and when the Shadow uses their appraisal skills, the System will register the struggle. It’s more complicated than that, as I’ll need to force a new template onto her soul, but when I’m done, she will look like a common swordswoman pushing herself to the limit.”
Rose swallowed hard. “Will it hurt?”
“Yes,” Nick answered, offering no comforting lies. “The ritual will be agonizing because it will go against your very nature. Once the veil is in place, your magic will feel suffocated. Drawing on it will be like swinging a sword underwater. You will lose the speed and raw destructive edge you currently enjoy.”
“If it keeps the executioner from Grandfather’s neck,” Rose said, worried yet resolute, “I will endure it. What must I do?”
“We need to prepare your physical body for the strain,” Nick said, rising from his chair. “The catalyst is volatile, and if your channels lack the endurance to withstand the alchemical burn, the ritual could kill you. Pack your armor and your sword. Tomorrow, we’ll go deep into the Green Ocean.”
There were more questions after that, with the two needing more assurance than his word alone. The more he explained, the more they seemed to understand that this was the only way.
And eventually, as he’d expected, they agreed.
———
Dawn broke over Floria, and Nick found his brother and Sonya waiting near the edge of the logging fields, with the looming wall of the Green Ocean a few hundred yards away.
Devon had packed a rucksack with several days’ worth of supplies, his bastard sword strapped to his back. Sonya wore a new dress he could tell was enchanted with surprisingly powerful protective magic, and she had refilled her satchels, which clinked softly.
Rose arrived a few minutes before their meeting time, wearing new, better armor, her longsword belted at her hip. She looked pale but focused.
“If we are heading into the deep woods,” Devon noted, looking at the distant, mist-shrouded peaks where Wyverns were known to roost. “It will be a long march through the underbrush just to reach the old dungeon’s boundary. We’ll have to make it quick if we want time to explore.”
“We are not walking,” Nick replied with a thin smile. While a small group could move faster than the strike team they’d assembled to fight the fae, and there’d be no need to scout ahead with him there, he didn’t intend to waste any more time.
He stepped into the center of the group and reached into the ether, pushing the concept of altitude, the freedom that came with flight, until their surroundings hummed with his power. The air beneath their feet hardened into a solid force.
Devon let out a startled shout as the ground vanished, dropping away rapidly. Rose squeezed her eyes shut, instinctively grabbing the straps of her armor for a grip. Sonya merely widened her stance, tracking the shrinking town of Floria below them with fascination.
Again, his brother’s fiancée proved herself far more than a lowly Maid.
It just goes to show that every class has its own dignity and value. It just needs the right person to bring it out.
And he fully intended to ensure it came to pass. He had much to do these days, but hopefully, when the threat of the Shadow was gone, he’d be able to focus on helping Devon and Sonya grow much faster than they otherwise could.
I don’t know if it will be enough to get them to Prestige. Sonya, certainly not. Devon, perhaps. But I’ll set them on the right path, and with this little excursion, they should earn a few decent Feats.
And so, Nick carried them upward, clearing the Green Ocean's canopy in seconds. He wrapped them in a kinetic bubble to blunt the freezing wind, then propelled the group westward at a speed that blurred the landscape into a continuous smear of emerald green.
In less than two hours, the dense foliage below gave way, revealing the former fae dungeon.
They began to slow at his command, losing altitude and speed, until he angled their descent, dropping them smoothly through the morning mist.
They landed on the ground with nary a whisper. Devon stumbled as his boots hit the earth, likely more from the sudden return of his mobility than any real imbalance. Rose fell to her knees, breathing hard, while Sonya casually looked around, unruffled in both appearance and demeanor.
The landscape had changed again since Nick last saw it. The Behemoth was dead, its corruption purged, and ambient magic once more saturated the earth. The trees had somehow grown into towering structures of crystal. Faint veins of blue and violet light pulsed slowly within the petrified trunks, and the air carried a sense of unrefined power.
A deep growl echoed through the crystal grove, and Nick turned toward it with a smile, even as his companions tensed.
A shadow detached itself from a cluster of glowing boulders, and Akas stepped into the light. The black mastiff had grown to the size of a war stallion. His fur drank in the ambient light, and his eyes blazed like twin coals.
He radiated the power of a true dungeon guardian, but his wagging tail gave him away.
Devon stepped in front of Sonya, his knuckles white on his sword hilt. Rose scrambled to her feet, her hand resting on her pommel.
Nick walked past them, his hands open.
Akas let out a huff of hot air, his aggressive posture dissolving as he lowered his head and trotted forward, pressing his wet nose against Nick’s chest, who smiled, scratching the mastiff behind his ears, dragging his fingers through the thick, shadowy fur.
“Good boy,” he murmured. Akas leaned into the touch, a rumbling purr vibrating in his chest, his tail thumping against a crystal root with enough force to crack stone.
“What in the hells?” Devon muttered, but he still slowly slid his sword back into its sheath.
“He is the warden of this place,” Nick explained, turning back to the group. “The crystal trees are slowly gathering power, drawing many of the local beasts. Akas hunts anything that tries to feed on the grove. We are safe from wandering monsters here. Pitch the tents. We will use this place as our base.”
They spent the next hour setting up camp near a clear spring bubbling from the crystal rocks. In more ordinary times, this would have been a perfect place for a brief respite, perhaps even a meal, but Nick had no intention of letting them rest.
“Leave the packs,” he ordered, sending a spiritual message to Akas to ensure they remained undisturbed.
The massive hound let out a chuff, then settled, keeping close watch.
And so they marched out, crossing the boundary where the crystal trees gave way to the untamed wilds of the Green Ocean.
“Grandfather warned me about this place,” Rose whispered, her eyes darting between the thick trunks of the elder oaks. “He said the deep woods don't just harbor beasts as we know them, but more dangerous things, things that survived the world's first ages.”
“Arthur survived them, and so will you,” Nick said casually, though he kept a weary eye on their surroundings. Even for him, this was uncharted territory, and he knew better than to think himself invincible.
He had power in spades, but some things could still harm him.
They walked a mile before the first signs of danger became clear.
Thick, gray strands of webbing draped across the branches, hanging like ragged curtains. The webs were the patterns most spiders wove, but these were chaotic tangles that choked the life from the trees and coated the forest floor in a sticky carpet.
Soon, a clicking sound echoed from the gloom ahead.
Nick raised a hand, halting the group. The ether was thick with malicious, hungry intent, and he could feel the presence of hundreds of powerful monsters.
“Get ready,” he muttered, and the others took his words to heart.
From the shadows beneath the web-choked trees, the arachnids descended. They were the size of draft horses, their eight chitinous legs ending in razor-sharp barbs. But the true horror lay in their bulbous abdomens. The chitin had grown into pale ridges that mimicked human faces—slack-jawed, hollow-eyed, locked in silent agony.
Even knowing they were only for intimidation, he couldn’t help but be mildly unsettled by the sight.
Hundreds of them swarmed through the canopy, their clicking mandibles producing a deafening, dry rattle.
“Gods,” Devon cursed as an empowering skill surged through his limbs.
“There are too many,” Sonya whispered, but relaxed when Nick smiled.
He reached for the ocean of mana humming beneath his skin and drew a line in the dirt with a casual wave of his hands, enforcing that boundary through [Spiritual Sovereign] and, for good measure, wrapping it in a searing wall of [Ascendant Flame].
A dome of distortion and white heat erupted, cutting the clearing in half. The bulk of the swarm crashed against the barrier, burning to ash the moment they dared to pass through. They shrieked, a terrible sound, but were unable to cross the line Nick had drawn. Yet they still came, trying to use their burning brethren as shields, and yet they still died.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have defeated [Visage Weaver — Lv. 78-89] x 117
+2,401,200 Exp
Only four of them had been spared, having already entered the circle before he’d activated it.
“These are yours,” he said, stepping back and folding his arms. “I will not intervene unless you are about to die.”
The four arachnids lunged, uncaring of the fate of their kin.
Devon met the first’s charge. He pivoted on his footwork around a stabbing leg, bringing his bastard sword down in a punishing two-handed chop that severed the limb at the joint. The spider hissed and reared back, but Devon pressed the advantage, driving his shoulder into its thorax and burying his blade in its grotesque, face-marked abdomen.
Sonya hurled a vial of pale green liquid onto the ground, releasing a cloud of corrosive gas. The spider charged through the cloud, its chitin sizzling and melting, its coordination collapsing as the acid ate through its nervous system.
It still managed to push through, forcing her to jump back under the power of a boosting elixir, which allowed her to stall long enough for Devon to fall upon the beast and cut it in two with a shout.
Rose took the remaining two, erupting in golden light as she engaged.
Nick watched her closely, studying the flow of her mana as it raced through her body.
He had to admit it was fascinating. The World itself parted before her, lending her strength and speed her level shouldn’t have allowed and ensuring her strikes hit true even when they shouldn’t have.
She dodged a sweeping strike that should have at least clipped her, rolling under the spider’s bulk. As she came up, she drove her glowing sword straight through the creature's underbelly. The golden magic seared the beast from the inside out, reducing its internal organs to ash.
The fourth spider flanked her, its mandibles snapping toward her exposed neck, but Rose spun, ripping her sword free and bringing it around. Her power flared brighter in response to her panic, drawing a wave of the World's might into the strike. She cleaved the spider’s head from its thorax in a single slash.
“Well, that went better than I expected,” Nick said brightly, then parted the flame wall to let a few more spiders through. “Again.”