Chapter 230 - Dungeon Movie

Nate looked on as the invaders rushed towards the temple and the Calikex defended it. Reaching into his spatial zone he began unleashing a small army of Constructs, running the gamut from basic elements like Water, Earth and Fire to the more esoteric ones like Clean and Dream towards the oncoming army. All the materials were Epic and they clashed with the armoured humanoids rushing the red-striped Calikex and their temple. His Conceptual Sight of the Runic Artist revealed that their enemies were all in the mid one-hundred-and-sixty range and possessing Mythic Classes for their Primary. It also revealed that they were basically all Elementally aligned combatants. Which made sense if they were an organised army with specific training, or was that just a choice the Dungeon was making? He wasn’t sure, but then, he’d never been in a Dungeon where there were allies. Was it just something that could happen in Mythic-tier Dungeons or was something else going on here? 

Nate glanced to the sky at the five armoured individuals doing battle with the dragon. Was he on the side of the dragon? The humanoid army armours and elements matched those on display in the sky above. He had to think of them as humanoids as they were not human. The hundred or so combatants were made up of beings that looked like elves, dwarves and other odder races. A winged woman with the face of a lion launched herself at one of the Calikex, only to be slapped away with a resounding boom. The Calikex all seemed to have a particular style of fighting, though of their Classes he could see nothing. Their method was totemic in nature, like the beasts of the jungle, they encased themselves in constructs of mana that were clearly gigantic cats and birds, channelling the fury of nature.

Among the horde of clashing elements and beasts, danced Kiri, her tethered arms flashing out around her as she kept three of the armoured enemies at bay. Her now Mythic daggers were finding purchase and all three of her opponents bled freely as she moved like a whirlwind around their elemental attacks. That was the moment Nate’s own army crashed into their enemies. The chaos was beautiful to behold as the enemy's lines were pushed in. The Calikex took full advantage as they launched clawed and winged attacks smashing into the invaders armoured forms. With the openings created, Kiri joined the fray in full. Normally, Nate might have doubted his Constructs ability to be competitive with such highly levelled enemies, but with his Embodiment doubling his Mental and Magical Stats, the Constructs were incredibly powerful. Once upon a time burning so many Epic materials would’ve been an issue and would’ve represented weeks worth of work. Now, here, he could probably accomplish the same in a few days. Less if he used Divine Energy to expedite the process. Instead, he watched the battle calmly from within his barrier. A Water Construct started drowning a spear-wielder who tried to burn away the liquid with white-hot flame, only for the distraction to see a projected claw of one of the Calikex rip him in half. A few metres away a wind-based Swordsman tried to fend off the inexorable steps of an Earth Construct, unable to do more than cause a little dust to fall with each attack. Further back, three lightning archers lay on the ground, twitching uncontrollably as above them hovered the image of a purple dreamcatcher. The Dream Construct held them in place only for a Calikex with the projected wings of a bird to swoop down and claw all three to death. Kiri, used to fighting beside Nate, was doing more damage than five of the Calikex combined, racking up her own body count. Everywhere the enemy were falling, and as they did the processed mana flowed into Nate and Kiri in waves.

For now, he was ignoring the notifications. Battle wasn’t the time to reach for them unless he was truly desperate, but he judged he’d already gained a level and would likely get a second one before this Challenge was over. With one part of his mind he was refilling his Mana Reserve, while at the same time he maintained a rune of Soul Empowerment to further enhance Kiri. Finally, he was channelling Multi Conceptual Material Shaping on himself, as he enhanced his Augmented Skeleton to raise it from Epic to Legendary. The last part was going over plans in the background.

It didn’t take long for the battle to conclude, and though half of the Calikex had fallen, the entire army of enemies had been eliminated. Kiri was making sure of that as she flitted around the battlefield, finishing off any wounded who had yet to succumb to their injuries. Nate could tell his estimate had been off. He’d expected to max out at two levels for this challenge, since he was used to a large number of enemies giving less processed mana. He hadn’t factored in the Dungeon tier enough though, and at the end of it all he had gotten three levels.

Frick was back next to Nate, using Nate’s own Skills to casually grab the various Orbs that had been dropped. There were more than a few and Nate tried not to goggle at the extent of them. Instead, he started going through his notifications.

You have completed a Dungeon challenge!
Dungeon: The Shattering of Halureth
Challenge: The First Strike (Defender)
Challenge Bonus: Rewards boosted by the number of surviving Calikex. Bonus is fifty percent.

Challenge Rewards (Select One):
1. Power (Mythic)
2. Equipment (Mythic)
3. Skill Evolution Enhancement (up to Mythic)

Please select Reward recipient: Nathaniel Weber or Kiri Beaufoy.

Kiri joined Nate a moment later, finished with her grisly work.

“You want this one?” she asked.

“Kinda. The Skill Evolution Enhancement could be really useful for some things I have planned. You sure?”

“Yeah,” Kiri waved a hand. “I capped out my Soul Rebirth Stat Drain from that fight alone. I got plenty, you take this one.”

Nate nodded. He was tempted by the Equipment option. Sure, he was intending to make his own, but his Legendary robe that had served him for two years had been a Dungeon reward and it had proven that items could be more interesting and useful than just a stat boost. The problem was that the Skill Evolution Enhancement could be far more pivotal for what he was planning. He supposed there would be other rewards for defeating the Dungeon Challenges and so he might still end up with some new and interesting equipment. With a thought he made the selection, two small orbs appeared in front of him. He could tell the second one wasn’t as powerful and must have been the bonus reward as the item descriptions flashed before his eyes.

Skill Evolution Enhancement Orb (Mythic x1, Legendary x1)
Stats: N/A
Features: Skill Evolution Enhancement (Mythic x1, Legendary x1)

Skill Evolution Enhancement: Guarantee a Skill Tier increase for a Skill Evolution or multiply the effect of the users Intent on directing the path of a Skill Evolution. Multiplicative effect is based on the Orb tier. Three-hundred percent for Mythic, two-hundred percent for Legendary.

That would be very useful. Moving on, he accessed his next set of notifications and quickly went over the changes.

Accrued Mana applied to Secondary Class.

Level up…
Level up…
Level up…

Stats adjusted: +3 Endurance, +3 Constitution, +6 Intellect, +6 Creativity, +3 Willpower,
+6 Magic Control, +3 Channelling Speed, +6 Mana Reserve, +18 Free Stats

With a thought Nate added all eighteen Free Stats into Mana Absorption. Now that he had handled the notifications, he paid attention to the battlefield, or at least the lack of it. In other Dungeons, the corpses had lingered, since, to Nate’s knowledge, they were actual monsters that had accepted System Contracts to populate the place. Who knew what was involved. Maybe they had clauses that let some of them leave, like if they exceeded the Dungeons current tier or something. That wasn’t important to him right now though. What was, is the fact that everything from the invaders' bodies to the Calikex and even the temple itself were being blown away, fading into wisps of colour as though a wind was ripping them away. When the effect finally ended, all that was left was the jungle itself and the battle above, which was very quickly moving away, towards a distant mountain range.

“That’s not normal, right?” Nate asked Frick.

“Fuck if I know, Boss. This Dungeon is weird though.”

Nates lips twisted in annoyance even as he agreed with his Familiar. Turning to Kiri, who was watching the battle in the sky as it drifted away, he was forced to tap her shoulder to get her attention.

“What? Yeah, yeah, it’s weird. Worthwhile though. At this rate we might be able to almost hit level ninety just from this Dungeon alone.”

“This was only the first challenge,” Nate cautioned. “And I did blow through a decent stockpile.”

“True… but there is no timer. We’ve got plenty of food. We can just hang around in here and slowly work through the Dungeon Challenges. Pause between each one if you need to make new materials for your Constructs.”

“And my other thing?” Nate pressed.

“Yeah, that too. Oh, yeah, sucks all the bodies are gone. But I am really okay with you experimenting on me if you need to. Worst case scenario we just off me and I burn a Soul Twin. I’ve got like… seven to spare right now. Eight tomorrow.”

Nate’s mouth twisted in distaste. He understood where Kiri was coming from, but then, he also wasn’t keen on experimenting with his new Conceptual Life Artist Skills on his sister. He’d hoped to use some of the living matter from the recently dead, or perhaps a subdued and sedated monster. The Dungeon should have been full of them. Instead it was being… weird. As weird as experimenting on your sister, he decided. But, he was desperate. Desperate to prove his investment down that path could pay dividends. 

“Fine,” he sighed. “I want to pause here and restock a bit. Did you want to explore the valley?”

Kiri couldn’t agree fast enough, but Nate reigned Frick in when he tried to join in.

“You’re with me. Legendary material making time.”

Frick huffed as he sat down and they started using Multi Conceptual Material Shaping to add affinities to pieces of Legendary wood that Nate had collected from the trees on the beach. As he worked he continued to improve his own augmented skeleton while considering his next steps.

His thoughts kept drifting back to his new Skills that should let him alter and manipulate life. The Skill, Life Manipulation, meant that he could simply use his Intent to guide changes to the body, even down to the cellular level. There were some obvious paths he could take the Skill, such as giving his physical body affinities similar to his mana, making him resonate with particular Concepts. But he already had his Embodiment. Conceptual Artist wasn’t just what he was, it was also who he wanted to be. Since he lacked Sigils for either of those Concepts, the idea of giving himself an affinity was off the table. More than that, he was hesitant to even level the Life Manipulation Skill, since his goal for it was a synergy that would change the definition of ‘Life’. With that in mind he instead reverted to focusing on further developments to his spatially constructed zone. If he had to live in this Dungeon for the next couple of months, he wanted to do so in comfort. Because in the end, there was no reason he couldn’t achieve his goals while also living a comfortable life. Otherwise, what was the point? 

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

Kiri stood on the edge of the valley, the trees around her swaying in the breeze as she watched the movie that was the battle in the sky. Movie? She laughed at the idea. Nate had explained the idea to her once and she had to admit, the notion that his world went to such extremes and invested so much in entertainment still blew her mind. But, that was exactly what this Dungeon was doing too. Or at least, that is what she suspected.

The battle itself was now above the mountains further west. West was just her judgement based on the direction the fake sun above moved. As for the battle, it was repeating the same thirty-minute sequence. She had been watching it for over two hours already and was into her fourth viewing. She just didn’t know what the Dungeon was trying to tell them with the display. She’d never heard of a Dungeon where you got to choose a ‘side’, nor one where the combatants were somehow faked or at least their corpses didn’t linger. A part of her was already chalking the differences up to being in a different realm. A Wild Realm, specifically. Perhaps this was just the Dungeon’s way of expending mana. But she doubted it. From what she had learned from Arikanvil, Dungeons served a purpose. They were meant to help get mana processed, either through System Contracts that brought in monsters with Class Cores, or to lure in those seeking to advance to challenge the Dungeons themselves. Those same challenges would then either die, or collect all that processed mana, freeing up space for more monsters. The goal wasn’t to expend mana, it was to process it. So, why was this Dungeon behaving so differently?

She didn’t know, but she intended to find out. And she only knew one way of doing so, at the point of a knife. With a smile she turned and vanished back towards Nate. She’d go exploring further tomorrow, but for now, she should probably do her part and cook them some lunch while Nate replenished his supplies.

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

Nate looked at the pile of Orbs. There were twelve of them, all Legendary Stat Orbs. Enough to total one-hundred-and-eighty Stat points. Unfortunately, the Orbs weren’t for Stats that Nate or Kiri wanted to focus on right now, with the majority being for Endurance and Constitution. Still, it was a huge amount and made Nate acknowledge just how quickly someone could advance in a Wild Realm. For now it was wealth that he and Kiri would be setting aside for when they eventually ventured to the Heartlands. They intended to use whatever they could to max out their own Stats, but the rest would sit within storage, to be traded as needed in the future. 

Glancing over at where Kiri was frying up some more fish, he lamented that their life wasn’t a little more relaxing. The three months he’d had after they defeated Bordain had been some of the best of his life, even with the time crunch to create the portal that brought them here. He’d had time to devote to his art and friends. Remembering Luc’s laughing face and Aisling's proud gaze, along with Rania’s cooking and Jorge’s gruffness made him realise what was bothering him. It felt like they’d left everyone they cared about behind. Sure, they’d be able to go visit. Maybe even settle back on Etrua when everything was said and done, but for two years now he had been pushed and prodded by his need for development so that he could decide his own destiny. And then the moment he’d set himself free of most of the shackles placed on him, Arikanvil had shown up with his own noose to drag them into some other escapade. His anger had been simmering for months and it was finally boiling over. He needed an outlet and he needed it now.

With a furious look in his eyes, he stood, stepping into his spatial zone as he prepared to vent his fury upon one of the new stone walls. His weapon of choice, a paintbrush.