Chapter 236 - Once More Into The Breach

Ra’Tiki looked over the gathered forces of The People. It had been decades since so many had assembled. Three teams of Igrit Riders waited upon his command. Another five teams of Jungle Hunters stood with Elder Rok’Nohn. Finally, a single team of ten Deep Guardians gathered around Elders Ra’Paki and Jin’Kahn. Then there were the supports. Cooks, cleaners and builders. Almost two hundred of The People gathered together to head to the Sacred Trial and make camp. A camp they would hold until the invaders completed the Sacred Trial or it opened once more to indicate they had not survived. 

He hoped for the latter, but if the pair had truly been Ascendants, then the Sacred Trial would likely bow down before their Divine might, and The People were simply marching to their deaths. The Elders felt differently. They believed if the invaders were Ascendants, then Death’s Shadow would have dealt with them. The Ancient had instead given The People warning, which meant this was a problem they could solve themselves.

Looking over the gathered might of The People, he hoped they were right, and not spending the lives of so many. It was risky, but even his grandfather thought this was the path forward, and so Ra’Tiki would do his job and do it to the best of his ability.

“We make to leave!” called Elder Jin’Kahn.

Palanquins were lifted to carry the Elders and supplies. The Jungle Hunters fanned out as the procession marched through the gates of the stilted city with the Elders surrounded by the Deep Guardians. For Ra’Tiki, he sent his first team ahead to find somewhere to land and wait, so that no matter what, a team of Igrit Riders would always be in the sky above the procession.

Flying above, he kept his eyes on the Elders and hoped they were making the right decision.

*************

Nate sat on the edge of the flying ship, his long, blond hair blowing freely in the breeze as the ship drifted through the sky towards a great portal in the distance. The Gravity Rune carved into the hull was more than enough to keep them afloat and resist the mana-empowered Concepts of the Dungeon, especially given Nate’s improvements. Coupled with a Wind Rune that was constantly pushing against the sails their progress was slow but steady. An apt description of their journey through the entire Dungeon.

Back on Galle, when Aisling, Evindal, and Luc had been gone for over two months while doing a Dungeon, Nate had just assumed that the reason it took so long was purely based on the distance the Adventurer’s Guild’s Epic Dungeon was from the Etruan Capital. Now, doing a higher tier Dungeon, he wondered if it wasn’t also partially the size and scope of the Dungeon.

Eight Challenges the Dungeon had promised, and Nate and Kiri had completed seven of them. Sometimes the Challenges had been days of travel apart. He didn’t know whether that was a trait of this Dungeon or just Mythic Dungeons in general. The first two Challenges had set the stage for all those that came afterwards. Defend the temple had been the first. Then defend the Holy City of Nozureth so that the citizens could escape. On the ocean, among a reef that housed a floating city, they had been required to save an artifact known as ‘The Deeping Call’. The artifact had been in the shape of a giant shell as big as Nate’s abdomen, and though it emitted no Divine Energy, it was clear from the Dungeons description that the real version was a Divine Artifact. He and Kiri had been contested the entire way by ships of The Eternium who seemed as hell bent on destroying the floating city as they were on obtaining the artifact.

When they’d completed the Dungeon Challenge, they’d been forced to flee from a giant tidal wave. That was when they’d obtained their boat. Five days of recovery and plenty of time to engrave the Gravity rune onto the boat had seen them now set to move from one Dungeon Challenge to the next. The bird’s eye view the flying ship granted them revealed the truth of the Dungeon’s name. With each Challenge, the landscape had grown increasingly shattered and broken. Plumes of smoke accumulated from volcanoes as they belched forth lava. Tidal waves erased entire sections of Halureth as they were buried beneath the waves. New land masses rose as the very crust of the planet was broken beneath the attacks of Divines who blanketed the sky in purple fire, ice and destruction.

After the reef, they had delved into an active volcano, fetching forth a second artifact: a black stone that spoke of invulnerability. The Keepers of the Deep had built a great city in the caves of the volcano and he’d seen row upon row of the Calikex sit before it, trying to drink in the knowledge emitted by the Divine Artifact. Nate would have done so himself if it wasn’t clear that it was a fake. A simulacrum created by the Dungeon itself to represent something that had once existed, and might still. This time it was not The Eternium they fought, but insects from the deep caverns below. The six-legged monstrosities ranged from the size of dogs to those of buses, the horde rushing forth in rage and fear as the volcano, disturbed by the battle in the heavens, threatened to explode and bury them all. Kiri had died twice protecting Nate as they fled, but Nate had found a new Concept in the process, understanding some meaning of the Depths.

Then came the eyries of the Heavenly Sky Wardens. Their artifact took the form of a Feather of a Soaring Roc. The feather itself was three times longer than Nate was tall. The ensuing battle had been fought in the sky, and while it seemed the intended method of completing the Challenge was to use flying mounts provided by the Calikex, Nate had instead outfitted his flying ship with Barrier Runes and cannons. Frick had argued that he should be the Captain of the ship as they sailed through the skies, launching attacks but Nate didn’t trust the crazy goblin spirit to not try and ram one of their enemies’ flying ships or mounts. Of the Challenges, it had actually been one of the easier ones, with Kiri teleporting around and easily achieving victories in single combat. Nate on the other hand had focused on flying using a Gravity Control rune and keeping up the ships defences. That, of course, had meant Frick got to the man cannons and Nate didn’t think he’d ever seen his Familiar have so much fun. With every enemy ship or flying beast that plummeted from the sky, Frick’s cackles had grown louder and louder. The goblin had also grown bigger and bigger, as though feeding on the chaos and destruction until Frick had tried to pick up a cannon and shoot it from his shoulder while screaming ‘Cannonball’. The recoil had launched him so far down into the clouds that it had taken him an hour to fly back up to them. Though in hindsight, that might have been because Kiri kept trying to fly further away from the little spirit.

The Coiled Ascendants made their home in a swamp and Nate had again abused his flying ship, choosing to remain above the swamps and avoid the scared and enraged serpents as warriors from The Eternium attempted to storm the temple. That Challenge had been another one of escape, as Nate had learned that The Coiled Ascendants had no artifacts. Instead, they served at the behest of a Divine. The great serpent had been massive and it had fought against a single Divine of The Eternium, laying waste to the swamp as the two fought for dominance. The Challenge had ended when The Coiled Ascendants had managed to escape out of the swamp into boats held by a fishing village. The aftermath saw the Divine Serpent die and its death poisoned the entire swamp, leaving nothing behind but infected water and dead plants and animals. Only the fleeing of The Eternium Divine showed the cost of their actions. The price of fighting and ultimately killing the Divine Serpent was the turning of the tide against the invaders, as their reduced number of Divines no longer seemed capable of containing the dragon in the battles fought in the sky above.

The penultimate challenge had taken place at the base of a great mountain down the coast. This time it had been Kiri who found herself commanding the Calikex as they pushed forward an attack on a great portal that had spewed forth the forces of The Eternium. 

By this point, the damage was done to the land and the Divines; both the Dragon and the five Divines of The Eternium, had vanished. The Eternium forces were merely trying to hold the portal which stretched over a hundred metres wide and forty metres tall. With such a rich spatial affinity in the air, courtesy of the portal, Nate had decimated the weak forces of The Eternium. Weak, he said, because they were clearly not representative of an actual Mythic of their level. Given the scope of the battle, with thousands on both sides, Kiri had chosen to command so that Nate could focus on wide scale attacks. Using his Grandmaster Space Sigil he had ripped and torn at space, dissecting The Eternium forces even as the Calikex crashed into them. 

Two months ago, when they had started this Dungeon, Nate would have been hard pressed to maintain such attacks for extended periods. But they had been far from idle. The Dungeon had rewarded them with another thirteen levels. The results had seen Nate’s Stats raised considerably. At his behest, The System produced a notification to cover all his gains.

Accrued Mana applied to Secondary Class.

Level up…
Level up…
…
Level up…

Stats adjusted: +13 Endurance, +13 Constitution, +26 Intellect, +26 Creativity, +13 Willpower, +26 Magic Control, +13 Channelling Speed, +26 Mana Reserve, +78 Free Stats

The seventy-eight Free Stats had all gone into Mana Absorption. But the Stats were the least of his gains. His Skills had improved, evolved and synergised. As he had planned, Spacetime Control and Gravity Manipulation had combined into SpaceTime Manipulation. The synergy combined and improved the effects of both, a factor in why he found it so easy to maintain his flying ship despite the mana density empowering the idea of what Gravity should be. Similarly, his Simple Spatial Creation had combined with Spatial Expansion. The resulting Skill, Spatial Creation, saw his spatial zone grow to over two hundred metres cubed, the beginning of a small world. Spatial Anchors had evolved and Nate had selected an evolution that made the doorways wider, purely so he could shove his flying ship into his spatial zone when they finished the Dungeon.

Finally, he had gotten three new Skills from his Conceptual Life Artist Class. The first he had selected was the last Skill he needed to create the synergistic Skill he desired. As before, The System had marked it with an asterisk, and Nate read over the description again.

Breath of Life (E)
A Life Artist can extend their capabilities beyond the biological, breathing life into the lifeless. Dead wood may live again and unliving metal may rise at your command. This is the first step in combining the living with the not into a cohesive whole that is still ‘life.’ By spending mana all creations that utilise this Skill take on Life aspects. Life aspects are empowered by Skill Level plus Creativity divided by two hundred percent.

Reading the description he could see how it would impact his desired synergistic Skill and was satisfied with it, even as he remained unwilling to touch the Skill and level it.

The remaining two Skills had synergised into a Skill called Artist’s Desire. 

Artist’s Desire (E)
Artists differ. Some create through music, decorating the world with sound. Others draw, paint or sculpt, decorating the spaces within which we exist. Others create in more esoteric ways, such as painting stories with words. Whatever the way the artist creates, this Skill supports them. Select two Stats to be empowered. These Stats choices are locked in and will be increased by Skill Level multiplied by two percent plus an additional ten percent.

Reading the description it was clear the Skill was purely meant to empower Nate further, increasing core Stats that he chose. He hoped it would continue to add more in the future as he evolved it towards Divine. From there, he was uncertain what way it would go, but he had time to decide. As the Skills had been used they had levelled accordingly and Nate had his Status bring up a log to show him his Skills growth.

Spacetime Manipulation 21 > 28
Spatial Creation 21 > 30
Spatial Doors 21 > 28
Breath of Life 1 > 1
Artist’s Desire 1 > 12

With the Class level growth, Nate had gained room for more Stat Orbs. The Dungeon had refused to give him the two he desired the most, Mana Absorption and Creativity. But Nate had decided to increase his Perception which had started to lag behind, raising it by ninety points with five Mythic Stat Orbs.

As he dismissed the last notification, Kiri moved up to join him, sitting on the edge of the ship. The final Challenge waited beyond the portal and Nate had a pretty good idea what it would be. Destroy the portal so The Eternium couldn’t return. He just didn’t know what form that Challenge would take. It might suit him perfectly, given his spatial and crafting skillset, or it might be more fighting. 

In his heart, he realised he was tired of the fighting. Two months was a long time, and while the house he had created for Kiri and himself had grown, now three storeys tall and with ever increasing comforts, he was still tired. He had flexed his creativity as much as he could, painting murals and crafting tables, chairs, reshaping entire rooms that were then filled with stolen pieces of loot from the various challenges. A rug here, an ornament there, in order to turn a house into a home. He’d created armour for Kiri, healing runic items for himself, all the while refining his plan for not one but two Divine artifacts. But even with all that, he had been burning his candle at both ends. He was ready for it to be over. By the time they exited the Dungeon it would be almost three months since they came to this Wild Realm and already they were most of the way to level ninety. Nate was sitting at eighty-three with one Challenge to go and Kiri slightly ahead of him at eighty-five, since she had not raised her Divine Primary Class yet. Ambient mana would be enough to get them to ninety if they did no more fighting. Something Nate doubted would happen, but at least it meant he could take a break from the constant combat and the sounds of people dying.

Kiri rubbed his shoulder, sensing his feelings, “It’s almost over. Just one to go. Are you ready?”

Nate nodded slowly and checked the ship one last time, making sure the sixteen rune cannons were fully charged, that the three separate barrier runes were active and that all his mana gems had been fully refilled by the mana gathering arrays.

He stood slowly, offering his hand to his sister as he helped to her feet. Then he turned back to the deck where the new control panel sat. A control panel that could fly the ship with a deftness that could almost match Nate’s own Gravity Control rune use. Frick waited there, blue eyes shining.

“Take us in.”

“That’s take us in, Captain Frick, to you!” cackled Frick.

Nate thought Kiri showed admirable restraint not hitting the lunatic Familiar as the flying ship accelerated, barrelling towards the portal.

“Once more into the breach,” muttered Nate quietly.