Chapter 190 - A lost pet

Fever went down enough that I could work, not the most comfortable day of work but job's done, this is fresh off the printing press! 

I wouldn't be surprised if I can't release quite on time for a few days, but chapters should come out either way unless I have a relapse. Anyway, thanks for the kind messages yesterday <3 , and enjoy!

Sofia and Pareth went all out.

Amidst the flurry of blows, the master left behind after-images as he dodged left and right. Attacks with [Bone Dominus], Pareth constantly switching weapons paces and ranges, the Paladins cutting paths, whip and sword attacks, Scepter boomerang throws, sneaky low power Angel’s bolts, and conductive blood trails.

Sofia tried every option she could think of. Every time she watched the Master come and poke her, effortlessly avoiding her assaults even when her whole armor had become little else than a ball of spikes.

Sofia’s Health dropped under ten percent.

Flying over the Master, she tried yet another whip hit. The Master was in the ten meters range of [Bone dominus]. She controlled the whip, altering its trajectory to account for the Master’s overused side-step. The Master simply side-stepped further. The whip missed by a hair’s breadth; by the time Sofia retracted the whip, the Master had poked her once more.

Pareth attacked from above. It was impossible to catch the Master.

Another poke.

This better work.

Sofia had spent many of the previous 'hits' observing the reactions and evading patterns of the Master. This would be the decisive hit.

She readied her whip. Pareth attacked once more as a distraction, and she unleashed her attack, once again, controlling the tip of the whip to have a perfect and adjustable aim.

It failed. Like clockwork, the Master dodged again. The whip missed him, and then, touched by an instantaneous bright explosion of sunlight, the Master's Health changed.

20 209 882 / 20 209 900

The whip had not hit the Master. It had hit Sofia's skeleton crow, who had been hiding inside Pareth’s skull for a long while. He had allowed Sofia to perform a neat trick she had discovered during her training sessions with Zerei. Though the solar burst from [Spine of the Black Sun] only occurs when it hits an enemy, what is an enemy? After some testing, they discovered that it worked in two ways. Considered an enemy was anything with harmful intentions towards Sofia or her summons, but also anyone dealing damage to Sofia.

When Sofia summoned the Paladins, she had also summoned the crow and tasked it to hurt her. It had pecked away ten of her Health points before moving to its hiding spot inside Pareth.

Sofia hadn’t been studying the Master’s movements so that she could hit him with the whip, which she thought by now was entirely impossible. She had done so to know where the crow would have to be to end up in the path of her whip and still close enough to the Master. Everything else was just a diversion. At the last second, the crow had flown out and got struck by the tip of the whip.

She had feared that the burst wouldn’t be enough to damage the old elf or that he would be able to dodge that too. But her efforts had paid off, although the Master had only been inside of the explosion radius for a fraction of a second. That had been enough to shave off a few health points.

Sofia let herself fall to the ground.

She still had some stamina to spare, but mentally she was thoroughly spent.

Health : 429 / 10995

Stamina : 578 / 3662

Mana : 17668 / 94000

Cut it a bit too close… If that last attempt failed… I would have survived, but I would be out.

Aaaaaah. This was too much stress. I couldn’t even hear myself think.

Also, that brings me to the top ten!

The Master’s enthusiastic clapping broke the silence in the arena.

“Congratulations, student! You are officially the ninth person to make it so far up the Spire! Now that is quite the accomplishment. However, sadly, this means our meeting this time has reached its end. Take this reward and be on your way out.”

The Master helped Sofia get up. With a wave of his hand, her items came back, the armor, the storage ring, everything. He was also presenting something to Sofia, a black belt.

“This is the proof of your hard work. Wear it with pride, student. Now, go on; you still have two more floors to go. They are deadly, much more so than this challenge; stay safe. This old calm breeze will watch with peeled eyes.”

Sofia nodded and accepted the belt the Master was handing her. She was sent to the waiting room as soon as she laid a finger on it.

I didn’t even have time to thank him properly!

Ah, whatever, regeneration fast.

Two more to go…

She was surprised that her fog skeletons hadn’t been dispelled and were in the waiting room with her. She stored them in her ring to make some space.

Sitting in her sun ritual, which was starting to become a ludicrously expensive habit, she stared at the scoreboard as she petted the crow that had saved her against the Master.

‘Floor 99

Known people who have failed on this floor :

Master Calm Breeze

Current rank : 9

(You are currently ranked at the bottom of this floor’s list)

Should you complete this floor, you will climb to rank : 3’

She also took a second to inspect the black belt she still held in her hands.

[Calm Breeze Dojo Black belt] : A black belt given only to those acknowledged by Calm Breeze as exceptional students. With no magical properties except for the soul-bind, this piece of clothing is proof of great status, should you know when and where to wear it.

Well. It’s not the kind of incredible effect I hoped for that would bolster my power for the next floors. But I’ll gladly take it.

As Sofia was transported to the next floor, she sighed at the oddly familiar setting. Frowning, she broke off the shackles binding her to the wall.

“Not again…”

[Ranking Spire Phase 2 : Floor 99 - Maze of Zar]

“That’s it?”

Great. No instructions, then, and the name isn’t helpful. So far, it looks like a darker and dustier version of the first phase’s maze. Doubt it will be anything like it, though.

Of course no space for Pareth… I might actually have to change his body this time. Let’s do it now, actually. Can’t take any unnecessary risk now. Only two people ever successfully made it through here, and it seems the Master wasn’t one of them.

Not leaving the cell she had appeared in, Sofia had Pareth appear in the corridor next to her. He was on all fours and completely stuck in between the floor and the ceiling. On the floor of her cell, she prepared one of the regular Stone Ogre skeletons. Pareth would be back to his old, weaker self, but it was better for Sofia than going alone. She could always get him back to his Alpha Ogre shell in the next waiting room, assuming she reached that far.

With Pareth’s new form ready, she collected the Alpha bones and set out to try out a few things. First of all, there was still the dark speckled stone preventing her from digging behind the one layer of cracked, mossy and dirty stone bricks. Secondly, the graveyard skeletons were blocked by whatever was beyond the speckled stone, so there would be far less wall traversing this time.

The starting cell looks the same… If more decrepit, it’s like the old and forgotten version of the last one. I wonder if the layout is the same. Also, are the moving walls still a thing? And what about the Earth Drake?

It would be funny if the challenge here was to defeat it, except mine’s already dead. We’ll see.

The Master went out of his way to warn me that it was exceptionally deadly. Should I be more wary of traps? I think, to be safe, I should assume that this place has nothing to do with the one from the first phase.

I should try to let Bookie regenerate his fog a bit right now. I’ll send the Paladins to explore.

Sofia started advancing through the long straight corridors of the maze. The formation was interesting. There were three Paladins far ahead acting as Scouts, three more a dozen meters away from Sofia and Pareth acting as a front guard and three as a rear guard, and most of the rest forming a tight-knit protective circle around Pareth and Sofia. Some of them were also tasked with keeping a constant focus on the walls, floor, and ceiling in every direction to make sure they weren’t moving. Lastly, a single one was on trap-checking duty.

Sofia didn’t have much hope in the Paladin skeleton’s ability to detect traps, but it was better than nothing. She was also constantly scanning the surroundings with her mana senses. After advancing a few hundred meters and making a few turns, Sofia was convinced that this wasn’t the same layout as the first maze.

The paths were different, but this maze also looked more real, life-like. It was unlike the previous maze, which was clean and tidy, extremely artificial-looking. Here, there were things strewn around, moldy crates, barrels, and broken chairs. Some strange wobbly grass and mushrooms grew in the loose crevices of the flooring stone bricks. Every so often, the muffled remnants of deformed distant echoes reached Sofia’s ears.

The three Scouts stopped, and the middle one took a step back, signaling they found an enemy.