[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 87: Hypothesis

“How do you want to do this?” Matt asked.

“Pretty simply.” Sam pointed. “I’m going to use [Void: Smother] over there. All I want to know is what happens when you step inside and use the mana type I’ve set it to. Then we’ll see how it works when Kai uses a different mana type.”

“Didn’t you get a bunch of information on how the ability works?”

“Not as much as I would have liked. Real practice is so much more effective.”

Kai frowned thoughtfully. “You do not wish to spar?”

Sam shrugged. “Not unless you both wish to. Now that Matt doesn’t have to keep Raiko stabilized, it could go back to being two versus one, but right now I’m trying to understand the depths of this new ability.

“Besides,” Sam added, “I would much rather we all go out on an expedition to collect supplies, find a Dungeon, or otherwise explore the thousands of floating islands all around us. We might even find a piece from O’ahu.”

Kai’s eyes lit up at that. “I would very much like to see that.”

“So would I.”

“All right,” Matt said, “I’ll use Poison mana, so go ahead and set it.”

Sam took a few moments to sort through how to use [Void: Smother] properly. It wasn’t like he had a list of mana types he could scroll through. But he could faintly sense the Poison in Matt, enough at least to impart its signature to his ability.

[Void: Smother] was similar to a spell… and yet not. He did not cast it so much as will it into being. There was no unique casting motion, intonation, or components that he needed to create it.

It simply… was.

A shimmering silver-black fog rolled up from the ground, faint enough that Sam could see clear to the other side, but it seemed that was only for his benefit.

“I don’t think anybody is going to be stepping through this,” Matt told him, circling the perimeter. “I can’t see a damn thing, and you can bet most people wouldn’t risk it.”

Sam added that to his list of pros. Low or no visibility was just an increased benefit to him. “I’ll probably be standing in the middle of it,” he explained. “So if it keeps me invisible, that’s even better.”

“Can you see through this miasma?” Matt asked, coming around to Sam’s side.

Sam nodded and stepped to the other side of the circle of black-and-white fog. Sometimes a spark as dark as night flashed and disappeared amidst the gloom.

“How many fingers am I holding up, then?” Matt called from the other side.

Sam rolled his eyes. “One. Very mature, Matt. You know, for one of the youngest store managers, you’re not very serious.”

“That Matt died when he tried to cling to a life that no longer existed. I’m the new, improved, and more ‘me’ version of me. It’s nice not worrying about whether or not an ill-timed joke is going to make some regional manager decide to pass me over for a promotion.”

“Because now you can just beat them up?”

“I like the way you think, Mister Hunter! So, are we getting on with this or what?”

Sam made a motion for him to start, realized Matt couldn’t see, then said, “It’s ready whenever you are. Try walking into it first.”

The reaction was immediate. Matt hissed and hopped out of the ring. Tiny black marks marred his clothing like he had been burned or zapped in a dozen different places.

“Okay, that hurt a bit.”

Sam looked to the side. “Kai?”

The large man got up off the rock he was resting on and stepped into the smothered area. “Nothing,” he said after moving his hands through the roiling silver-black shreds of fog. “I cannot see anything, however. Are you able to change the mana type on the fly?”

Sam tried and then shook his head. “It doesn’t seem to be possible. I guess I’m not skilled enough yet, or maybe it’s just a limitation. Try casting something, Matt. I know you got spells.”

“You don’t know I have Poison spells!” came a voice from the other side. “Okay, I do have Poison spells, but… you didn’t know that. You can’t know that because it wouldn’t be fair.”

“Just cast a spell, please.”

Sam could hear his ex-manager grumbling, but he did as he was asked and raised one hand while drawing some shape through the air with his other hand. A spray of clearly poisonous gas spewed out from his palm and flowed easily into the smothered area.

Immediately, Sam could feel the Void mana within react. Wherever the Poison mana entered, the Void mana obliterated it, consuming it and nullifying it within a foot.

“Are you poisoned?” Matt said after a few moments. “I put enough oomph in there that it may have leaked out. My bad.”

“No,” Sam said, coming around to his side. “It hardly went more than a foot. It didn’t just weaken it, it completely nullified the mana.”

“That could be because you are much stronger than Matt,” Kai pointed out. “While we all have come quite far, you were already ahead to start with. Unless we gained a large amount of Experience that you did not, we should still be quite a few levels behind you.”

“You can say I’m weak,” Matt said, putting his hands on his hips. “Not for long, but you can say it now.”

Kai turned to him. “What do you mean ‘not for long’?”

The words burst out of Matt as if he had been hoping to be asked this very question, “My Second Order Job has 16 stats per level!”

“That is significant,” Kai said in the same measured and stoic manner that he always did. “A quarter more than my own, and even more than Sam, if I recall.”

“You’ll still need to get a Path,” Sam said. “I would slap you on the back to congratulate you, but I’m not sure if something will fall off you.”

“Har har,” Matt sneered jokingly. “You’re strong, but you’re not… that… strong…?”

As Matt spoke, Sam walked through the smothered area, picked up a stone, and squeezed it in his fist. He never thought about how much Strength he truly had, but watching himself idly crushing a rock into dust was very satisfying.

And apparently intimidating too. Both of his friends paled with comical wide-eyed expressions. Kai’s was more amusing by far.

Sam let the dust trickle out of his fist. “You were saying?” he asked Matt, smiling as pleasantly as he knew how.

“You picked that stone on purpose. Right?”

Kai looked at the dust trailing from his fist. “I do not believe he did.”

“Okay, well,” Matt said, “how about you let Kai take a turn then.”

“Gladly,” the Shaman said. “With my new Job, I have access to even more Nature mana than before. We shall see if your Void can stand up to the strength of the Mother.”

“Big words,” Matt muttered as Sam dismissed the first [Void: Smother] and created another, this time attuned to Nature mana.

Unlike with Matt, when Kai stepped in, he didn’t immediately jump out. After a while, Sam called out to him, “Are you okay in there?”

There was no reason to be concerned, however. Kai nodded, knowing that Sam could see within. And he certainly didn’t look hurt.

Is that because of Matt’s race change? Is part of his body actually Poison now?

It was an interesting idea on how he might be able to fight elemental aligned enemies. Not that he’d seen evidence of their existence, but that seemed inevitable.

Somewhere, somebody was so fully entrenched in whatever their preferred mana type that it saturated their very being. Probably more so than Matt.

I wonder if this would have worked on the wooden golem? It clearly had Nature or perhaps Wood mana.

Maybe he could have somehow fought it off and avoided being separated from Kale and the rest.

Not that he would have been able to cross the bridge Darren cut… and he certainly would not have grown as he had. No Hidden God Greater Blessing, no… and then he remembered the [Dungeon Ingresses] that he gained.

Sam focused, but kept a pin in his thoughts. They now had land to use the [Dungeon Ingresses] on, and he intended to do so as soon as he could. Maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea to do it right now, but he would talk with Raiko and the rest to set it up as soon as things died down a bit.

After all, having access to a Dungeon, and one that spawns on your own Tile? That seemed too good to be true.

And that alone was a good reason to proceed cautiously.

There was no telling what would happen if it went wrong. Sam didn’t have many Tiles to spare for a Dungeon, and if it took over the entire Tile without doing much else but creating a hole for a few monsters, Sam didn’t want to spend too much time on them.

Not when they drifted past countless floating islands every day.

Sam thought to himself and watched as Kai drew on some power beneath the ground. The barrens bulged beneath his feet and a root erupted, then swiftly withered until all that was left was an upraised bump of cracked stone.

Kai looked down in shock. The next spell he cast was significantly stronger, and while it definitely proved more powerful than Matt’s, it, too, was obliterated.

“That took a little longer,” Sam said.

“I think you’re both ganging up on me,” Matt told him. “You’re jealous that I have this bomber of a new Job and so you want me to feel weak!”

Kai staggered out of the Void covered area looking pale. “I must admit,” he said, dropping onto a rock to sit, “that your new ability is very effective. I tried to enshroud myself with Nature mana, but it stripped it away. Once it latched on, it burned through my mana like a wildfire through dry brush.”

Sam placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I appreciate this. Do you need to take a break? Because I have one more favor to ask….”

***

While Sam trained, Komachi played her flute alone, out on Raiko’s Skyshard. Perched on a mossy stone on the bank of a gentle stream, she struggled to successfully cast [Haste Mazurka].

Her MP bounced around. Even failing to cast a Bard spell ate MP, just maybe not as much. It wasn’t like Komachi knew. It hadn’t worked once.

The grating, raucous noise emitting from her clumsy paws was at complete odds with the otherwise tranquil atmosphere.

Growing unusually frustrated, like it was some kind of resource building in the back of her noggin, Komachi wanted to throw away the flute and try another Job.

Bard is stupidly difficult! It’s not easy like Cleric was, she groused.

She wasn’t sure how much of that was the Primitive rarity flute’s doing or her own inexperience at anything musical that didn’t involve yowling.

Her progress was slow, but steady. Hopefully, she was far enough away that the melody that was grating even to her ears wouldn’t disrupt Sam’s training with that Void magic junk.

The way Komachi paused and looked around nervously from time to time would have bothered him if he had been paying attention. It wasn’t like her to be like that.

Raiko emerged from the bamboo, stepping gracefully across stones in the river. Komachi’s spirits soared at seeing her friend alive and well, who reminded her of good times when Sam wasn’t gone and exhausted all the time.

However, Komachi was still a cat that could easily spook, so her two brain cells duked it out and the victor determined she must flee in a panic.

Dropping her flute, Komachi made a frantic attempt at fleeing.

But Raiko was much, much faster.

Face shadowed by that wide brimmed samurai-like hat, except for her amused grin, Raiko scooped the flailing cat up, then placed the apprentice Bard right back on that mossy stone.

Raiko sat down beside Komachi and handed her some of that exceptionally tasty food, then doled out generous pets that really amped Komachi up.

“You remember me?” she asked, mustering up the bravery to find out.

“Of course, Komachi,” Raiko said with heartfelt warmth. “Nobody could ever forget a good cat like you.”

Now that made Komachi feel really good. She got to playing again, this time with much more confidence and gusto.

It took some time, but a skill up suffused Komachi with just enough knowledge to be the tipping point in her Bard journey.

Your [Instrument] Skill has reached Primitive III.

Musical notes swirled around them both, carried on Wind mana, buffing them both with a single tier of the haste effect.