Chapter 334 - Last Phase

The soldiers stood frozen in place after exiting the Dungeon. They had immediately brought up their Notifications that had sprung up to inform them of the changes wrought during the Delve. Reivyn didn’t understand the mechanics behind it, but for some changes, the System updated inside the Dungeon, but for others, they updated once they left.

Maybe it’s based on what’s considered a reward from the Dungeon? He surmised. The Skill training is part of the Dungeon, even though the gains are made inside the Dungeon… I don’t know, but it’s not that big of a deal. Just another mystery of the System.

He pulled his own Notification up after making sure everyone had arrived back in the real world.

[Skills Leveled Up!]

[Tier 1:]
[Athleticism (88 ->91)]
[Balance (65 ->67)]
[Dancing (44 ->49)]
[Drill (24 ->25)]
[Observation (68 ->70)]
[Rhythm (49 ->55)]
[Tutor (38 ->49)]

[Tier 2:]
[Ambidexterity (41 ->43)]
[Teach (40 ->50)]

[Tier 3:]
[Blind Fighting (54 ->55)]
[Command (61 ->64)]
[Inspire (67 ->68)]
[Night Vision (66 ->67)]
[Sense Threat (39 ->40)]

[Tier 4:]
[Spatial Awareness (82 ->83)]

[Tier 5:]
[Protection Prodigy (85 ->86)]
[Rhythm of War (24 ->25)]

[Tier 6:]
[Weapons Master (114 ->116)]

Some of the Skill gains came as a surprise to Reivyn. He had advanced an entire ten Levels in his Tutor and Teaching Skills. After a moment of contemplation, it made sense. He had spent several weeks spending time teaching the soldiers little tricks and shifting their mindset, and then he was able to witness the Dragonling’s approach to guiding everyone towards improving themselves.

He wouldn’t be able to perfectly guide an entire Party of people at the same time, but he was able to glean insights for his own training. Up until now, when he sparred with others with the intent to teach, he would show them with his own actions and stop and talk about how to do it themselves, but now he saw that he could subtly guide their movements in the moment. As he improved his Tutor and Teaching Skills, as well as the underlying Skills to train, he would be able to influence them more and more.

I know the Dragonling is obviously Transcendent with his combat Skills, but I wonder how high his Teaching Skills are? Probably pretty high.

Reivyn chuckled to himself as he closed his Notification window. The soldiers were still staring wide-eyed at the invisible screens in front of them. Reivyn waited patiently for them to come back to themselves.

He didn’t have to wait too long. The first soldier shook himself and turned his focus back to his compatriots. He noticed Reivyn waiting on all of them, so he elbowed the soldier next to him while coughing loudly. The others were pulled out of their astonishment by the loud interruption, and they all quickly focused their attention on Reivyn.

Reivyn nodded his head to them, standing with his arms folded over his chest.

“Good. I’m guessing by your expressions that you all made some pretty good gains.” Reivyn was met with a chorus of nods and affirmations. “Excellent. We’ll have to spend a couple days dredging the new Skills gains to get fully acclimated to the sudden jump in numbers, and after that, you’ll officially be released from my command back to your own units.

“You’re all dismissed for the rest of the day. Meet at the training grounds at the regular time tomorrow morning.”

The soldiers gave crisp salutes before jogging off. Reivyn found a seat near the little guard shack to wait for the others from his Party to get done with the Delves they had gone on with their own groups. Reivyn had been the first one in, and the others had led their teams in staggered a couple minutes apart. It wouldn’t take too long for everyone to wrap things up inside.

The soldiers has spent a day sparring with each other to let the new Skill Levels fully seep into their beings. The second day, they sparred with the soldiers from the other Parties that delved the Dungeon with other members of Reivyn’s group.

They really noticed the difference in the Skill Levels they gained when they sparred against their friends from the group that would have to wait another month. Everyone was fairly close in Skill Levels throughout the military unit, but getting the full benefit of the hour-long spar against the Dragonling had improved their abilities enough to create a clear disparity.

The soldiers with the improved Skill were happy and all smiles at their gains, and the waiting soldiers were doubly determined to take advantage of the opportunity.

Reivyn and the others continued their training schedule with the fresh group of soldiers, replicating their methods and teachings, convincing them of the importance of Stamina training and working on their auxiliary Skills. Reivyn’s new understanding of Teaching helped him prepare the second group just a bit better than the first group. It wasn’t anything crazy, but Reivyn could see that with more training and practice of his own Skills, he would be able to make a significant difference in someone’s Skill Leveling one day. He didn’t know how long it would take, or how high his Skills would need to get, to be equivalent to the Dragonling, but he could at least see it as a possibility in the future, now.

The second squad of soldiers ran the Dungeon with Reivyn and the others and saw similar improvements as the first groups. They had a rematch with their compatriots from the first groups, and they were once more neck and neck in their Skill Levels. Everyone was happy, especially the officers and the commanding general.

Reivyn was happy with his own gains, as well. He had continued to improve his own Skills, and he had made an important breakthrough in the last delve in an interesting direction.

Instead of just hiding behind his shield and weathering the storm of Dragon Breath from the Dragonling, he had used his Divine Sense to pay special attention to the beam of Plasma Breath that had the potential to melt through his shield and Mana if he slacked off.

The Dragon Breath wasn’t a magic attack, nor was it entirely mundane. It was infused with Mana and Affinities, but that wasn’t what gave it the incredible might. There was another intangible ingredient in the attack that made it so deadly, and it was the reason the Dragonling disintegrated right after using it.

It was infused with Dragon Essence.

The Dragonling was an offshoot of the Dragon Race. Their bloodline was probably only around one or two percent of a True Dragon, yet the Dragon Essence was able to elevate its Dragon Breath so much. Reivyn wondered how powerful a true Breath Attack from a True Dragon would be.

The breakthrough came with Reivyn’s understanding of the similarity between Dragon Essence and his Heroic Aura. Not just his Heroic Aura, but also his Hero Class Skills. He had always been a little miffed at the Class Skills. They didn’t really seem to do anything that he could see. Even without the information that he was “better than everyone else,” his Skill Levels would speak for themselves anyway.

He finally realized the real benefit was the Class Skills gave him an instinctual understanding of how to fuse his Heroic Aura into his attacks. Usually, his Aura was just something that expanded outward from him. It was an Aura. But with his Class Skill, he could compress that Aura directly into his actions.

Comparing the difference in might between an infused actions and regular actions, Reivyn could tell that Heroic Aura was not as potent as Dragon Essence; however, he would be able to continue to grow his Aura and Class Skills with dedication over time, so he wasn’t too worried about it.

The existence of different Auras, Dragon Essence, and the fact Hero is a Mythic Class, not Divine, lends me to believe there’s actually a higher order Aura available. Maybe the base Aura of whatever the Divine Rarity Class is will be equal to or stronger than Dragon Essence. They’re the pinnacle of the Beasts, and Divine Rarity is the pinnacle of Classes… I wonder what the Divine Class equivalent of Hero is?

As far as Reivyn knew, it was functionally impossible to unlock a Divine Rarity Class in the lower Tiers without intervention from an Ascended Being. Divine Skills required Divine Mana to fuel them or they were considered a half-step lower in Tier, but Reivyn had a hunch that it didn’t apply to the designation of a Divine Class itself. It’s Class Skills were most likely hobbled by the lack of Divine Mana, but the designation of Divine for the Class was just the rarity. It made sense to him that one didn’t need access to Divine Mana for the Divine Class, just to fully utilize it.

Maybe we’ll figure it out one day. Who’s to say Mythic Rarity is the highest I can take my Class? I’m still only Tier 3. I have five more Classes to unlock before I reach the peak. I will improve to the highest Rarity before I reach Tier 8. We’ll just have to see how soon I can make that transition.

Reivyn continued to train and watch the conflict happening below the cliff. After the successful second Delve, he shifted his focus from training others toward paying more attention to the ongoing conflict. He felt the pulse of the war with his Rhythm of War Skill and his experience.

There was a slow, gradual uptick in the assaults and harassments launched by the allies against the invaders. The robed powerhouse never made another appearance that Reivyn discovered, but it also could just be that he was too far away to notice wherever he did make an appearance. Reivyn was more and more sure that the one robed powerhouse was the only one still left on the enemy’s side.

The soldiers from their cliffside fortress, as well as the mercenaries, also took turns heading down the cliff to participate in combat. It was the best way to improve their Skills other than the Dungeon Delve they had access to, and it was far more consistent. The only difference were there was an actual probability of death or serious injury. Some of the soldiers and mercenaries lived for that kind of conflict, though most of them preferred the safety of the Dungeon. 

Reivyn thought a balance was most appropriate. There was no escaping life or death situations forever. Even Crafting Classers had the potential to find themselves in life or death situations on occasion. Those were outside the norm for crafters, but it should be expected for Combat Classers. If a Combat Classer wasn’t willing to engage in life or death battles, they shouldn’t have a Combat Class. It was as simple as that.

None of the soldiers or mercenaries balked at having to go fight the enemy, though. The most prominent complaint was the Marching involved. Walking long distances and up and down the cliffside, especially if they didn’t actually engage in combat, was the number one gripe of the soldiers. Reivyn just chuckled, but with them. He agreed. It was just another facet of “hurry up and wait.”

One day when Reivyn emerged from his quarters on his way to the top of the cliff to watch the conflict, he noticed that the base was in a flurry of activity. Everyone was running around seeing to various tasks at a breakneck pace. Reivyn quickly dropped his plans to ascend the mountain and reversed direction to go see the commanding general. The aide waved him through the open door, closing it upon Reivyn’s entry.

The commanding general was just as busy as his soldiers, though his tasks were all placed on his desk. He motioned for Reivyn to take a seat while he flipped through various documents and organized his papers. After a few minutes, he was satisfied enough to address Reivyn.

“What can I do for you, Major?” The older man asked with a smile.

“I just noticed the sudden uptick in activity, so I figured I’d come to the number one source to find out what’s going on,” Reivyn replied with his own smile.

“The end of the war is what’s going on,” the general said with excitement.”

“The end of the war? Did something happen overnight?”

“Not overnight, no,” the older man shook his head. “We’re getting ready to launch a full assault on the enemy in the next couple of days, though. The Imperial Elders have finally arrived from the Wilderness, and with their side only having the one powerhouse right now, we don’t have to worry about his showing up and killing all of our men. The Elders will either keep him busy, or kill him themselves.”

“That’s excellent news,” Reivyn said, nodding his head. “Do we know how long they have to accomplish their task of draining the local Providence?”

“No, we haven’t been able to figure that out. As long as they’re not done, we can expect them to dig their heels in. The Imperial Elders aren’t going to fight the war for us, just like we don’t fight the war for our men, but they will even the playing field. We probably still have quite a fight ahead of us, but we’re going to push them out of the immediate lowlands with a sudden, furious assault in less than a week’s time.

“Do you plan on leading your men in the fight?”

“No. I’ll participate, but I’m going to lead the command in my Captain’s hands. Nothing will change on that front. If I’m going to start actively participating, too, anything you want from me should go through him. Just let him know what you want, and he’ll get the orders to me. I know I’m his superior, but he’s the commander in this situation, and the chain of command is clear: The Commander is in charge.”

“Sounds good. It was nice getting to know you, Major. Your insights have been interesting, and we all really appreciate what you and your Party members have done for our soldiers.”

The commanding general stood up and extended a hand to Reivyn. Reivyn stood up and accepted the man’s handshake. The general got back to work with his reports, and Reivyn left the office for the last time. There would very likely be no reason for the two to directly interact with each other in the future. Now that Reivyn was going to enter the conflict for real, he wouldn’t want to muddy the waters of the chain of command. It wouldn’t be fair to his Captain, and it could cause a lot of unnecessary headaches with the chance of miscommunication or lack thereof.

Reivyn went back to his quarters to inform the others of the change in the situation. They were about to enter the final stages of the invasion, and Reivyn was hopeful they would be able to actually win this one for a change.