“No shit,” Peter said as he walked up next to Eric, unlimbering his shield, putting it onto his arm, trapping it into place, and grabbing his hammer. “Well, let’s ready up.” The Paladin’s hand flashed with multiple Sigils being expended, and the whole group was surrounded with shimmering bubbles of silver that then hugged close to their bodies. Right after, a bubble of crackling crimson, and then another of bronze layered over the top.
“What’s this one?” Shannon asked as she poked at it.
Peter looked back as he activated his Rote, and his whole body was covered with his draconic armored layer over the top of his existing full plate. “I had a few Bars left over. I merged my damage redirect with a Reaver and new Resonator Skill. I get the damage redirect like before, but basically, all the damage you suffer and that redirects gets . . . pooled? It gets calculated together—I still take it for y’all—but then when I choose, I can add that pool to my hits.” He levered his hammer onto his shoulder. “Makes me hit a lot harder. That’s what Resonator is all about. Works really well with Reaver.”
Naomi’s body flared with the lightning-blue color and she was covered head-to-foot with her dragon-themed sci-fi power armor: but instead of just the single MAB mounted on one shoulder, she had two—one that was the usual, the other which looked like a smaller, yet larger-barrel gun. “I added a cannon for distributing curatives,” she said plainly. “Plus some other upgrades. I’ll still just be backline support.”
“Where’s the carryall?” Eric asked.
Naomi turned around and pointed at her back, which had a square-shaped pack. Eric saw a little grabby-arm wave at him. “It’ll be able to hop off and on as needed to grab stuff, and is connected to my Storage Dimension on my bracer. My bracer’s space is a lot larger than all of yours.” She turned back to face the group. “Figured we should all be more mobile.”
Shannon armored up in her shadowy serpentine form, and racked back her crossbow which looked more like a medieval sniper rifle with how streamlined it appeared with the once-spyglass and now-scope mounted on top. “Ready whenever.”
Eric spent one of his sixteen Sigils to activate Bristling Bastion, and activated Cinderscale Shroud at the same time. The only difference between his prior manifestation and the new variant was that the Conduit Class added a blue and purple coloration to the draconic armored form that sucked in his armored robes tight to his body, adding a flickering glow to the white between the black scales. He grabbed his Focus Grimoire in his left hand and let a Blackflame Evocation pool into it; the three orbs of Blackflame that rose up from the pages and were held at the ready, waiting for their destructive potential to be released, were just as before, with the addition that the raw blue and purple of mana seeped from the edges like vapor.
“I’m ready,” Eric said. “The ice rain will suck.”
Peter raised his shield and another Sigil flared out. A sphere manifested from that point, and curled around him. “Everyone close. This barrier can take a beating.”
Everyone clustered close to Peter, and the group walked forward. The moment they left the safety of the initial entry area, the sounds assailed them. The hissing of the pools to their left and right, the howling of the winds, and the crack of the ice that slammed into Peter’s raised barrier.
“We need to move fast,” Peter said as he picked up the pace to a jog. “This is hitting a lot harder than I thought!”
Eric moved and was surprised at how quickly he caught up to Peter. Must be the new nervous system, he thought. It’s not really making me faster, but my body is reacting faster, and my perception isn’t fully keeping up yet. It’ll take a while for my brain to acclimate.
They reached what appeared to be the next chamber, judging from the fact that there was another invisible barrier along their path that blocked the falling ice storm. A massive field of glass spread out endlessly to the left and right until the horizon faded from view. There was no path through the center—just a platform that the trail ended at. Beyond, maybe a quarter-mile across the field of razor-sharp, waist-high, partially-clear and partially-opaque glass, the path resumed.
“When we get through that, prepare for a challenge!” Naomi shouted over the falling hail.
The moment the group crossed the threshold, true to what Naomi predicted, things began to happen.
First and foremost, the ice storm stopped behind them. After, a tremendous wind picked up, and the glass began to crack off, fragment, splinter, and blow around in a tempestuous whirlwind of fragmented shards that cracked against Peter’s barrier, which had started to fracture from the impacts outside and continued to do so against the sustained assault.
“We have to get across!” Eric shouted over the howling wind. “This is an endurance test.” His smoke and cinder cloud was blown away and useless in the face of the tempest.
Peter looked down at the grass-glass field. “Well, start blowing it apart.”
Eric fired off his Blackflame Evocation, and watched as the three orbs obliterated the patch of grass directly in front of them, melting the shards down to a puddle that hardened into a patch they could stand on. “Okay, I’ll take the lead.” He hopped down, and then used Blackflame Breath, channeling the Rote as he walked forward, blazing a trail as he melted away the blockade.
“My barrier is about to come down!” Peter shouted. “I’d rather not burn Sigils—everyone cool with me just keeping the damage redirect on and healing through it with mana?”
“I’m good with it,” Eric replied.
“Same,” Shannon added.
Naomi said, “Fine by me.”
Peter’s silvery sphere faded away, and the whirlwind of spiked glass shards began slamming into them.
To Eric, it sent his improved reactive nervous system on overdrive. His body, against his will, seemed to jerk instinctively in all different directions to dodge the incoming flurry—but it was coming from all directions as they were in the center of the hurricane of hazardous slivers. He shut off the Rote as he tried to steady his legs.
“What are you doing?” Peter asked.
“New nervous system,” Eric replied as he managed to stand still, though his upper body continued to twitch as his senses kept screaming at him to dodge the incoming attacks that were coming his way every second. “It’s got a twitch reaction when things get close to my skin.” He re-ignited his Blackflame Breath and kept melting their path forward, trying to ignore the feeling as best he could.
That was a mistake. Shannon shouted out a warning, but it came too late, as something slammed into Eric from his right and sent him flying into the glass-grass. He landed on the surface, breaking through as the razor-sharp sections sliced into the barrier surrounding him and all of the damage was transferred to Peter.
What hit me? Eric thought as he got to his feet.
Peter was bleeding—which wasn’t an unusual sight given his role and build—and he was facing off against a mound of grass-glass that had two bulbous arm-like pseudopods that grew out of the mound’s sides, and seemed to just be the surrounding environment, animated. One of those arms came crashing down, and Peter got his shield in the way, blocking the strike. The glass exploded in a hail of shards that flew out like a fragmentary grenade and hit Shannon and Naomi—and both ladies backed away.
Shannon began firing off mana-based bolts from her chamber, probably not wanting to try and recover her regular crossbow bolts from the dangerous field, and Naomi’s MAB was firing off jolts of arcing lightning. Both seemed to do nothing against the mound. Peter’s hammer swings were doing something.
Eric’s mind was racing. It’s got strong magic negation, he thought. But not physical.
He still had his grimoire in his hand, and manifested another Blackflame Evocation, launching it at the entity. The powerful, all-annihilating force slammed into the mound, and did damage, melting a hole through the center.
But, no Blackflame Blaze ignited upon it.
Indedroma, what gives?
[It is immune to the burning effect, because it just melts away. Technically, your damage is instantly annihilating it.]
At least my stuff can damage it.
Eric began to move closer, but his nerves screamed at him to dodge, and he threw himself prone onto the razor-sharp grass. Something passed overhead, and he got to his feet and turned, finding himself facing another of the mounds.
Opening his mouth, Eric channeled a Blackflame Breath, focusing on covering the monster’s entire body. His Rote consumed the creature’s whole form, melting it to a puddle, and he turned, ran back to his allies, and saw Peter was bleeding heavily—far more than he should be given how little damage Eric figured he had taken.
I can heal using mana, Eric thought. One to one, and it costs him less to receive it now.
Eric used Blacksteel Mending, and sent a stream of his Blackflame, which converted to a greyish stream mid-air, and seemed to suck in blue-purple ambient mana around Peter once it touched him. The man’s breathing became steadier, and he delivered a punishing uppercut with his mace that sent the monster staggering. It gave Eric an opening to use another Blackflame Breath to consume the thing’s body in its entirety, incinerating the monster in one go.
“Good shit,” Peter said. He looked at Eric, then winced under his helmet as the hail of shards in the wind continued. “Good healing, too. Less mana?”
“New Class,” Eric replied. He looked past Peter to the ladies who were moving closer. “Let’s keep going. Physical damage for these things.”
“I saw,” Naomi replied as she reached her right hand up to her MAB and turned a knob on the side. “Actual bullets it is.”
Shannon cycled the cylinders on her crossbow. “I hate spending the blunt bolts, but if I have to—” her eyes went wide, and she turned around. “More coming!”
Eric didn’t see them, but he knew she had some type of danger sense focused Trait, and readied another Blackflame Breath, ensuring to keep his allies in the exclusion list of targets. “Where are they?”
“Everywhere!” Shannon replied.
Eric was about to ask what she meant, but he realized a second later when all of the grass-glass around them shuddered and began to merge, sliding into piles, which then manifested into more mounds with the pseudopod-like arms.
Naomi shouted, “AOE Skill time, Eric!”
Eric looked at Peter, and the Paladin answered his unspoken question, saying, “I can tank it. Big AOE!”
Eric spent a Sigil—down to fourteen—and used a Cinderstorm right on top of them.
Boom! Fwoosh!
The explosion surged outward and felt warm to Eric, almost comforting like falling into Misty’s warm embrace in bed, and it incinerated the mounds of glass-grass, burning them away into puddles. The hail of shards was temporarily abated as well. All of the foes who perished gave Eric a surge of health and mana which he directed to Peter.
The Paladin was hurting, as his entire body was covered in black, cracked skin and oozed blood. He didn’t seem to be suffering, which Eric attributed to his pain nullification Rote from Reaver. “Good shit,” Peter said.
Shannon pointed. “Let’s move! More are coming!” She began running forward, and Eric followed after her, with the other two joining a moment later. She let Eric overtake her, and he used his Blackflame Breath to clear the remaining glass out of their way as they reached the solid path on the other side, and entered another force-field bubble that stopped the tempest of glass from reaching them.
“Why aren’t we done with the chamber?” Peter asked as he looked back at the now-approaching shambling mounds, raising his shield into a ready position as he put himself at the back of the group.
Eric grimaced. “We know what that means.”
[Holder of primal force detected.]
[Additional challenge activated.]
[Full restore - granted.]
[Clear the Glass-Grass Plains, and receive an Ember.]
Eric grimaced. The fields were enormous, going off into the distance. But, there had to be an end if they could be cleared. He had an AOE Rote, and could restore his mana rapidly with his new Conduit abilities. “Naomi, did you get a primal force challenge?” he asked.
“I did,” she replied. “Not sure why though. I’m not complaining, though. Thoughts?”
“They’re getting closer!” Peter shouted. “Plan?”
It clicked for Eric then. Each cluster of glass-grass shards that piled together and shambled towards them was part of the field. “We just have to wait,” he said as he began firing off Blackflame Evocations one after another, blowing apart the approaching foes. “They’ll come to us—the whole field will. I just stay here and blast it.”
Shannon walked back a few steps and sat down next to Naomi. “So we just wait?”
Eric glanced back at her. “Yeah. It’s that simple.”
“No way,” Peter replied. “These challenges are always hard.”
Eric shrugged. “This one seems like it isn’t. I mean, look—” he pointed with his grimoire as he fired off more of his Rote and destroyed another one of the foes, refilling his mana to the brim. The glass puddle that was left behind didn’t stir, but the surrounding bushes began to coalesce to life and shamble over. “How many do you count? Eight, right? Shannon, how many surrounded us earlier?”
“Eight,” she replied. “Oh! I get it. There’s a cap.”
“Right,” Eric replied as he kept doing his job of dealing with the approaching threats, staying behind Peter in case they did get close enough. “We just kill them as they come. And since I have mana restore thanks to my build, as long as I can fire off these Blackflame Evocations fast enough, they don’t stand a chance. Just sit back, relax, and let me handle this.”
Peter relaxed his stance and stood up a bit straighter. “Whatever you say, man.”
***
It took a solid hour of blasting his Rote, during which the Summoned just chatted as if they weren’t in a mega dungeon, and Eric wasn’t destroying monsters that could easily pound any one of them into the dirt. His Bristling Bastion ran out on its timer, which was fine, because the monsters weren’t coming anywhere close to them.
Finally, the field was cleared, and the bracers vibrated indicating the chamber had been cleared. Eric willed his to emerge from his draconic armored covering, and looked down at it.
[Additional Challenge - Cleared!]
[Ember Acquired.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have 5 level-ups to process.]
[Blackflame Evoker 170, 171, 172, 173, 174.]
[Choose a Skill and Trait to increase. Then repeat this four times.]
Well, Eric thought, that was relatively easy. It’s been so long since we’ve been in a dungeon—
[It’s only been twenty-two days since the invasion dungeon.]
Still, that wasn’t bad at all, given my build.
Naomi sighed. “One level. Figures. My theory is holding true—participation effects milestone acquisition.”
“Same here,” Shannon replied. “Just one.”
Peter added, “I got three.”
“Five for me,” Eric replied. “Let me do this real fast.”
Okay, let’s put all the Ranks into Bristling Bastion, since I know I want to turn that into a Rote and need to get that maxed out to do so. As for Traits, all into Embersoul Blackflame Blaze.
[Confirmed.]
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Skills:
[Armored] Bristling Bastion A8 - The duration increases. 50-minute duration.
-----
[[Dire] Embersoul Blackflame Blaze is at Rank Transcended 10. Maximum Rank achieved. Mythicizing and resetting.]
-----
Traits:
[Dire] Embersoul Blackflame Blaze M5 - Increase the DOT damage. 130% of the total direct damage over 2.5 seconds.
-----
Mythic already, Eric thought as he willed his bracer to sink back into his armored form. Just Sovereign, Primordial, and then the Trait is forever part of my Path.
[Exciting. Are you prepared for what will happen?]
I think so.
He knew well enough that the Trait would not just become a key part of him, it would fundamentally change. He’d never had such an over-tuned Trait before, so he had no clue if it would compress down and simplify, or maintain its complexity, or possibly even split into new permanent alterations to his Path and were treated as non-Trait, passive buffs.
Eric looked at his allies. Peter was finishing up his tapping on his bracer, while Naomi and Shannon were talking quietly as they looked at the path ahead, and the lava field a few hundred feet away, which was covered with floating chunks of rock that seemed to move about randomly. “What are we talking about?” Eric asked as he walked over to join them.