PftA Book 5 - Chapter 33 - An Unexpected Advantage

“Before you start crafting, you should probably put this on,” Kai said before handing me a familiar-looking ring.

“Isn’t Anya supposed to wear this until she reaches the pinnacle?” I asked as I took the experience-boosting ring Anya and I had earned together from his hand.

“She said to give it to you,” Kai replied with a shrug. “Since she’s already reached level ninety-seven, I figure she thought it would be better to pass it over early.”

“Ninety-seven!” I exclaimed. “Even with the ring, that seems too high.”

“She’s been delving Tier Ten rifts on Sira for the past decade. You know the time dilation compounds in rifts on Sira. In Tier Ten rifts, the dilation is roughly fifty times that of standard time.”

The dilation was only ten times faster than standard time outside of Sira, but with the planet’s natural time dilation, the effect was multiplied by five. If Anya had been fighting in rifts consistently since I returned to the dungeon, it made sense how she’d progressed so quickly.

“Is she sure there won’t be an issue with her other contract?” I asked.

“She didn’t think there would be. Either way, she wanted you to get some use out of the artifact as well. I know you didn’t plan on getting to use it yourself when you agreed to her deal, but you know how my sister is.”

I nodded. I did know how Anya was. That was why I suspected there was some other reason she’d sent me the ring.

Since I’d known her, I’d learned that the Fate Mage rarely did things that were truly disadvantageous to her. I just wondered how sending me the ring early benefited her.

I slid the ring on my finger, and it immediately adjusted to fit.

“I’ll send Anya a message thanking her later,” I said.

Even if she had some other purpose in giving me the ring early, it would still make my progression through the final tier faster. If she received some unexpected benefit from the arrangement, well…good for her.

The thought of sending the Fate Mage a message brought to mind the most recent set of messages I’d received.

Though only a little over eleven years had passed outside of Sira since I returned to the dungeon, my contact with family and friends had already grown sparse.

Some months, I only received two messages – one from Zavira, and the other from Kai. Mom, Dad, and Amie were pretty good at keeping in touch as well, but even they often had gaps of a few months between correspondences.

I’d heard from all three of them this month since I’d mentioned my impending increase in tiers in the messages I’d sent out a month earlier. I’d even gotten a note of congratulations from Bell.

Communication with my former sister-in-law had become sporadic, at best, though I tried to send her a message every few months, even if she didn’t reply.

From what I’d gathered from my parents and Amie, Bell was busy living life as an adventurer with her new husband. I didn’t begrudge Bell’s happiness. As far as I was concerned, it was good that she’d finally moved on from Justin.

In fact, I didn’t blame any of my family members for becoming more distant. We all knew that I’d be in the dungeon for a long time, and there was no guarantee the realm would let me stay for long once I reached the pinnacle.

Some Pinnacles felt enormous pressure to ascend right away, while others seemed to only feel a mild discomfort that was easily ignored. Most suspected it had to do with the individual’s natural lifespan, but Time Mages had always been a little different when it came to such things.

Even low-tier Time Mages could slow their natural aging without even using a spell, though it by no means made them immortal. At best, human Time Mages could extend their lifespan to roughly that of an elf.

It was probably part of the reason elf supremacists like the former Sovereignty Sect had such a problem with non-elven Time Mages.

Regardless, I wasn’t sure how the realm would respond once I reached the pinnacle. I should be okay if the realm considered my natural lifespan to be the equivalent of an elf. But if it did not, then I’d probably feel a lot of pressure to ascend right away, especially with how much I took advantage of time dilation.

Pushing the thoughts aside, I got to work crafting the equipment I’d need for my time on the tenth floor. As expected, Kai had a lot of materials for me to work with.

= = =

My mentor seemed content to relax and hang out as I spent several subjective weeks crafting new equipment. With the new increase to my demesne’s time dilation capabilities, that was still just under two days in the dungeon.

I hadn’t expected the dimensional space to more than double its capability for time dilation when I reached Tier Ten, so the discovery had been a nice surprise.

At best, I’d expected the soulbound space’s time dilation capabilities to improve by about a third since that was roughly how much stronger time dilation was in a Tier Ten rift as compared to a Tier Nine rift.

In addition to the time effects, the size of the space had also more than doubled. Further, I got the sense that I could expand the space even more if I put some effort into it. But since my demesne was already far larger than I needed, even with a large portion dedicated to storage, I didn’t bother to expand it any further.

I also didn’t bother upgrading the pod that served as a residence and workshop since it was already more than enough for two people. While creating a new Tier Ten version might provide a few small benefits, it was nothing that was really needed.

“Where do you want to start?” I asked Kai when I finished my extended crafting session.

I was a little excited to try the new weapons and protective equipment I’d crafted using my new Grandmaster Enchanting techniques.

My mentor’s gaze unfocused as he looked at something through his interface. After a few seconds, his eyes focused on mine.

“I meant to bring up the welcome notification earlier,” he began. “I assume that the skill suppression part is new?”

“It is,” I agreed, wishing I could explain the reason behind the dungeon’s added restrictions.

Kai nodded thoughtfully. “Given Anya’s advice, I suspect it likely has something to do with preparing us for the next realm.”

“I agree,” I said before considering how much I could share.

To my annoyance, I got the sense that I still couldn’t say anything about the primer or what I’d learned. However, it seemed like the geas wouldn’t stop me from commenting on things that were obvious – like the skill suppression that was in place for most of the zones.

I wondered if there might be some way to get around the geas. It would be annoying to have to censor myself for the next several decades.

“Assuming we will lose access to most of our skills and spells upon ascension,” Kai began, “perhaps we should start with the second zone where the suppression is mild and work our way deeper until we can use our skills without the system’s assistance. I’m not too worried about the spell limitation right now. We can address that later.”

Since his suggestion mirrored what I planned to suggest, I agreed, and we were soon standing in front of the portal through which we’d both entered the floor.

Unlike the previous floors, the Trading Pavilion and its connected amenities were not part of the actual floor. Instead, they seemed to be isolated within their own little mini-zone. In my mind, I labeled it ‘Zone Zero’.

Aside from a bit of grass and trees, there was nothing within the small non-zone aside from the pavilion and the Challengers’ Retreat. In fact, the entire space was only about a quarter of the size of my newly expanded demesne.

I wasn’t sure how traveling between zones would work with my demesne, but based on how my access points reset anytime I entered a rift, I suspected I would be far more limited than I was used to.

It wasn’t a huge issue since I should still be able to teleport anywhere inside the zones… provided I could do it without the system’s assistance.

I felt confident I’d manage one way or another.

I was a little worried that the dungeon would separate us when we went through the portal, so I made sure to Mark Kai before selecting zone two as my destination and stepping through the portal.

We’d briefly discussed what to do if we were separated, but it seemed none of our contingencies were necessary since Kai appeared beside me on the other side of the portal.

“I sense several portals spread throughout the zone,” I commented. “I wonder how the dungeon decides where it will send someone.”

“Why don’t you ask the golem the next time we return to the market?” Kai suggested. “I found the golems to be quite helpful during my initial climb.”

I inclined my head, acknowledging his suggestion and making a mental note to do just that the next time we encountered one of the entities.

Taking in our surroundings, I saw that we had arrived in the zone atop a cliff that overlooked a lush valley. In the center of the valley was a tall hill with a hole at the center, which led to a series of tunnels underground.

Spatial Sense was somewhat hampered, but it functioned enough to enlighten me about the creatures we’d likely face in this section of the zone.

“Ants,” I said with disgust before shivering as a memory of fighting a swarm of ants on the previous floor flashed through my mind.

Individually, the barely-Tier Ten creatures weren’t much of a challenge. At least, they weren’t compared to other creatures at the same level.

However, ants rarely went anywhere alone. And if you managed to find and kill a lone ant, the pheromones it released would instantly draw any of its brethren within several miles.

They were a far more dangerous foe than they might appear to be. However, my magic had always been a bit of a cheat when it came to creatures like this.

“Do you want to focus on creating a Time Domain while I prepare an AOE spell?” I asked.

I  could have easily done both alone, but that somewhat defeated the purpose of having a companion. I also wasn’t sure if the casting would count as two spells or just one.

“Sure,” Kai said before casting the technique. “Just a warning: Though it’s not a true spell, the dungeon is treating the technique as one for the purpose of the spell restriction.”

I sighed before nodding in acknowledgement. “I figured that might happen,” I said. “If necessary, we can always leave the floor and return. From what I understood of the welcome notification, the dungeon will reset our spell choices each time we enter a floor.”

“That’s a handy way to help challengers determine which spells are most important,” Kai commented. “I imagine things are going to get quite difficult the deeper we go into the floor.”