Adjusting to the hitch in the plan, Luke braced with Xera, layered frost covering the sword. For now, he decided to concentrate what he could muster on her blade rather than himself. With that control, frost slowly crept out from Luke’s feet.
Sooty kept back, according to his commands through Reaver’s Link. The banshees incessantly wailed, which did more than alert any other monsters nearby, and the same message kept spamming Luke’s log.
[Banshee’s wail attempts to put you in horror. Spectral Heart resists the effect. Resistance shared with companion]
“How annoying. Is that all they do?” Luke said.
The Banshees were faster than their lumbering Abomination counterparts and soon flooded the smaller hall where Luke tactically retreated. As he was about to relax, an Abomination launched a hooked chain at him, nearly grabbing him. Without the ascended reflexes, Luke would’ve been caught before he could react.
“Sneaky tactic, nearly worked too. Good thing I listened to Wayfinder.”
The frost built up on the floor and coated the ghostly walls. They slowed the banshees as they were in swiping distance. Luke paced backward to the angled hall turn behind him. Luke reared Xera back as three banshees dashed out to try and skewer him with their elongated, ethereal nails. He swung Xera in a frontal arc, slicing through all three. With a command, the frost implanted within them from that contact fulminated, and they were blasted back, but alive, being replaced by their sisters coming from behind. Luke applied an Essence Bond to one in the front center.
“Go ahead Sooty, you’ve got yourself a perfect test target.”
The illusory writhing shadow tendril mass doubled in size. Sooty Essence Screeched and the sound waves spread the Essence Bond while greatly damaging the Banshees; they staggered back. As a side effect, the constant banshee screams stopped for a second. Sooty appeared to be a better screamer. With the boost from Gigantification, the already weakened Banshee died. Sooty reverted to her normal size immediately.
Luke let the frost regenerate around him, with the ‘aura’ these cursed unholy women desecrated naturally. Luke rapidly refilled Essence and could attribute it with Frost with no exhaustion. He could hear the three sets of lumbering steps getting closer. Luke threw an Essence Lance and immediately imploded it. The ability showered ice shards and amplified the already present frost. The Reaver took advantage of the synergy between his technique and class abilities. He fulminated the frost, and the force tore banshees apart.
In the meanwhile, he slowly backed up. With the natural frosty slow around him, the dreadful enemies barely touched Luke. When he completed a dodge, the Shadowmeld Spaulders further increased Luke’s speed. Aside from minor hits, Luke felt little pressure. Sooty punished any Banshee that overextended, usually resulting in their demise. Once the three Abominations showed up behind the half-legion of Banshee’s, Luke realized why they took so long.
They were squishing each other, or rather, two were, as the last stood behind them, scratching its head. The hall too cramped for the three of them to enter freely. Both of the Abominations fighting for space hurled a hook at Luke. He tapped one away with Xera and shifted his body to dodge the other. A shadowed line opened behind him, Essence Fissure, and sent the Banshees and Abominations screaming down the corridor, plastered against the ghostly moving wall.
Luke used Wayfinder’s Temporal North and fed an Essence Lance to the Fissure right in front of him. With the mask’s illusion effect, the resulting scattered ice turned pitch black, reminiscent of oil-stained acid rain. A new round of frost covered the creatures before Luke. He closed in, slashing Xera with icy arcs. The banshees rapidly fell, and shackles clanged on the floor at their passing.
A moment before the Fissure let up, Luke refreshed Infusion and let Sooty rotate her ability, empowered by Reaver Wing, turning them into true magic damage. The Reaver Beak smashed an Abominations Skull in, and a Talon Strike ripped out its neck. The toughened undead shrugged up the damage, trying to grasp Sooty. With the illusion concealing her true form, they clutched at empty air.
Momentum finally turned, and the three elites swung their hooked chains at Luke, not to pull him to them but in a wide motion to smash him against the wall. He ducked to dodge the first and pull Xera in front of the incoming second. The resulting force still smashed Luke into the ghostly wall beside him. A bit of blood spat out of his mouth. Luke used the ice underneath his feet to vault up to the hall’s ceiling, which was not an incredibly high distance. He tried to chop off an Abominations Head with that freedom of movement.
The attempt fell flat, and Luke had to slide Xera out forcibly. An Abomination grasped him, trying to smother Luke to death. The Reaver repeatedly stabbed Xera in and out its body. Once sufficient frost built up, he exploded it internally. The undead turned into near-solid ice, and Luke hacked away at its fingers, cutting them off and freeing himself. The other Abomination ripped its hook into his shoulder.
Luke cut the chain attached to the hook with Xera and kept the hook in as he jumped back. He used his other hand to push it out while Sooty partnered with her Shadow Wing to occupy the two Abominations. He stuffed the resulting wound with Frost. But another message popped up.
[Undead Rot has entered your body. Deals twenty-five damage a second for the next six seconds. Stacks]
What a nasty surprise. Need to be extra careful from taking too many hits from those hooks.
The Reaver watched Sooty battle. With her small size and the illusory effect helping her, the two undead only landed lucky glancing blows. The Shade summoned from Shadow Wing took on the same appearance as Sooty and, as usual, kept attacking with no regard for attacks coming its way. The normal exhaustion from constantly using elementalization was completely absent. But with the Banshees gone, the decay aura dissipated.
Charging back in, Luke mirrored the Shadow Wing with its cover; he kept brandishing Xera through one Abomination’s arm. Set to expire, the Shade rotated its abilities at the targeted arm, severing it. As it wisped back into Sooty, it left an Iron Feather on Luke. Sooty already had one protectively rotating around her, letting her fearlessly tangle with another Abomination. The third creature assisted with an occasional chain swing but was otherwise dead weight.
The Reaver and his companion slowly chipped away at the three elite monsters. Taking a handful of solid attacks in the process. But the rotation of abilities, the difficulty of chaining hits, and the power of an expert at elementalization put all three creatures back in the grave. Each decayed in a blink, and three bronze orbs entered Luke’s Inventory. The Banshees also dropped items, but Luke had failed to notice how many. Each rested in the Inventory.
Rather than relax, he surveyed the area. The fight had backed him up to near the entrance. If Luke wanted to, he could return to the Foyer in less than thirty seconds by walking. While the pull was about as difficult as prepared for it, it was unworthy to be considered deadly to Luke. The tomb put him closer to the precipice constantly. This felt like a step or two above a cakewalk.
Sooty, or ‘Lilith’ as her name was to others when in this form, floated back to his shoulder and attached herself there. Luke backtracked to where he initially pulled the three monster groups. Along the way, he noticed the shackles from the banshees remained. He picked them up and put them into Sooty’s Spatial Feather, curious if they were of any use.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
As he returned to the more spacious corridor that originally held the Banshees and Abominations, Luke noticed the brown floors and black marks slowly wiped away. The vicinity held no noticeable features other than a gaping hole in the back wall. Ghostly spirits rotated around it.
“I’ll bet my non-existent beard that’s where I need to go next,” Luke said.
“But you don’t have a beard, master, and you’d look funny with one,” Xera said.
“I know, that’s why I bet it.” Switching topics, Luke called out to Wayfinder, “Hey, you, brooding compass.”
“What’s got your tongue occupied now, lad?”
“Pretty sure this mask treats you the same way it treats Xera, that people can’t hear either of you speak, but they can hear me. Next time we meet a group alone, try to say one word or a sentence. Nonsensical or loud enough that they’d have to react to it.”
Wayfinder bounced one against Luke’s chest, “Aye, keepin’ me grubby mouth shut is a true hassle. Better than being taken off your corpse by some nincompoop with no true potential but too many years behind him. You’ve got me on board.”
Pacing toward the opening, Luke took his time. The ambient decay aura clung weakly to the air. It rejuvenated his stamina faster than he did passively, to Luke's benefit. Although with the new Dejen’s Diligence passive, he noted stamina issues practically went away. Add in that it also boosted Essence Regeneration, and he could likely use Elementalization for a longer period of time, and more often.
He did have to wonder if it had some other catch—as if the frost or ice affinity within was limited. Luke didn’t think so based on his previous experience with the technique. You’d expend your resources to use it, in Luke’s case, Essence, and it would slow down your regeneration more the longer you kept it going. But with the passive ‘draw’ from his leg item and the synergy between the ambient aura and his class type…
It barely seemed like a limiter. Admittedly, when he tried to force out more frost in a shorter time, it did speed up that process. Yet to counter that, he could generate ‘passive frost’ if Luke could call it that, through Essence Lance and Frost Fall Reave. Next on his agenda was to implant Frost Essence consistently to his abilities. Essence Lance always seemed to have the frost affinity, even from before he learned elementalization. The same could not be said for all his other abilities.
In fact, thinking on it, he never tried it on Infusion, or Essence Bond for that matter. Only on Essence Fissure. Would the expenditure be worth it? The added slowing effect and wider range from Essence Fissure with elementalization certainly had its uses.
With a nice, recently cleared-out corridor to test things in, Luke set up to do so. First, to not act a total fool, he did go check out what lay outside of the collapsed wall section. Peeking his head out, Luke witnessed a ghostly flowing river and a ferry parked out to the side of a short, wet, black stone dock, waiting. On the ferry was a splitting image of the near-transparent, green-tinted spirit grim reaper.
If Luke didn’t know better, that would be exactly what he would call it. He tried to inspect it with the Interface.
[???]
Tier: 4
Level: 100
HP: ???/???
A ferryman waiting to take the damn banshee lost souls over the Styx Lake. Would they hurry up already? Been centuries. All these non-undead, uninvited creatures take his boat instead.
“I’ll take it that’s not something to fight. Possibly ever. What’s the story behind those three undead groups?”
Sooty looked around curiously and flapped over to the dock. She hopped around but kept off the boat. Luke let her do what she wanted. If that ferryman wanted to do something deadly, let alone Sooty, he was dead meat, too. So why worry about it?
Plus, her Quicksilver feather wasn’t for show. The passive allowed her to sense whether unholy type enemies had hostile intent. Luke figured it would apply to the ferryman and the other creatures in this dungeon wing.
Snapping his fingers, he said, “Enjoy the view Sooty, but don’t get on the boat. After I try to test out an idea, we’re leaving here for the day. I wanted to scout out this dungeon some, and we did that. Other than possibly trying out the other wing, no other need to stay in the Ruined Realm.”
Sooty turned around in her shadow tendril illusory form and did a sort of ‘wave’ with her joint-less limbs. Almost like she was telling him to shoo or to play on his own. Luke shrugged but kept his ‘sense’ from the Reaver’s Link on her closely. Even out of sight now that he stepped back into the corridor behind him.
Luke re-observed the area one last time, ensuring his and Sooty’s safety. Exhaling, he began testing Essence Fissure, a shadowed line opened at the corridor’s roof. With greater ease than before, he applied Frost Essence to it. Snow started to fall with the pressure, and ice formed. Luke walked under the ‘modified’ Essence Fissure and willfully applied its effect onto himself.
The Essence Fissure tried to slam him down to the floor, yet his boots tried to counter the force. The result was a tug of war, with his body being the rope. He canceled the intent and reviewed the experience, which lasted less than a second.
“Master, did you find a new fetish to mess with yourself using your ability? There’s help here waiting for you.” Xera said.
“Aye lad, never too late to see the counsel of your two trust immovable partners.”
“I’ll be doing quite a number of odd things. I’m trying to test the limits of elementalization and my abilities. Let me think about what I’m understanding.” Luke flicked Xera’s crystal, “Don’t try to pin me down with some crazy fetish; I’m a perfectly healthy young man.”
“Ouch.” Xera said, “I’m only speaking up for your health!” She pouted.
They can think what they want, that’s not what I’m here for. Luke brushed off their unfounded concern.
First, Luke could feel a ‘freezing’ effect, but his affinity and resistance to frost was high enough that it may as well have been a temperate breeze to him. This did mean it would slow down those more vulnerable to frost—on top of the knock-up, or in this case, down, effect.
Second, Luke could command the ambient frost and ice the frost-attributed Essence Fissure created.
Last, the passive effect from his boots would try to keep him upright and on the floor, even at the expense of wear and tear on his body. Luke wondered if an attack would blast him off the floor and if he would keep his posture in mid-air instead. Or if it had a threshold his Essence Fissure could not reach?
Either way, these two new items changed plenty of dynamics. And it sparked an idea: could he ‘control’ that passive? The set bonus mentioned a soul, Onelius’ to be exact. He failed to see a situation where he’d want the legs passive off, but the possibility remained in niche scenarios for the boots.
He’d ask one of the Defiers about it. Maybe that crazy scholar Annika would have a general understanding. Trying to straighten out the messy process of integrating new ability, technique, and equipment interactions, Luke moved on to another skill half a minute later.
“Infusion,” Luke said, and the Reaver Essence congealed to his hand. With the intention to prod at the ability, he kept it back from enhancing the usual targets. Frost crept up his hand and tried to mix with the ability. However, the process was difficult. With his mastery of the elementalization technique, Luke believed it’d be a cinch like it was with Essence Fissure now, but that was far from the case.
The two acted like oil and water, and he had not the faintest idea why—only that the intricate balance was beyond him currently.
“No Frost Infusion for now. Shoot. Next, onto Essence Bond.”
Luke applied the ability to Xera first, as he usually did. Next, rather than overlay frost onto Xera, he tried to stuff it into the appeared runes on the blade’s body. The runes flickered, and sweat dripped down Luke’s face as he concentrated. Slowly, they became closer to a white-blue from the original black.
Xera said, “That tickles, but it feels nice. Keep going.”
The words snapped Luke out of his focused state, and the frost essence separated, freezing over Xera but not melding with the runes glowing on her body from Essence Bond. The runes returned to their black tint caused by the mask’s influence.
The Reaver assessed quickly, “Might work with Essence Bond, at least with my progress with Elementalization now. But no way can I manage it in combat, takes far too much concentration, and I don’t know the effects. Infusion can be something I return to when I’ve got Essence Bond figured out first.”
Sooty tapped a ‘tendril’ on his shoulder and pointed up so that Luke would stop staring into the floor.
A tora man started clapping from the opposite end of the corridor. Two elves and two monics remained behind him. “Glad you’re done with whatever weird shit you muttered to yourself about. Be grateful that shadow familiar on your shoulder is looking out for you. Would’ve gotten a risk-free robbery otherwise.” The tora spat on the newly cleansed floor, “Since some schmucks cleaned out the first pull in the Spectral Wing, we’ll take our chances on you instead. Your aura is so devoid of power, it’s hard to believe you’re a tier 1. What did you do, a forced ascension?”
The overly confident Tora signaled with his eyes, and the teammates around him prepared a formation while drawing their weapons. Luke coughed, and the ‘will’ to distort his voice affected his words again. It was time for ‘Rune’ to return.
Rune liked cleaning up. And the other end of the corridor was very messy.