The normally raven black crow had a glowing, radiant light shimmer across her body. Sooty didn’t seem too concerned, and the Reaver’s link only communicated a sense of: after tusk.
“After tusk?” Luke’s face was painted by perplexity. “Was it from the behemoth you took down Sooty?”
Reaver’s Link still had issues giving more than simple words or emotions between the two. The skill helped with Sooty’s lack of language, not that it was her fault, but it also meant that articulation was still limited.
The other two started offering ideas while he tried to figure out how his crow became a radiant ball.
“This again? The last Reaver’s companion had this happen to them, too. It’s part of the mirror trial, I think? Or maybe not…either way, it suits Sooty!” Xera started laughing.
The echoes of the sound filled the grand hall. It felt almost unnatural in an ordinarily empty and quiet place.
“Wand sword over there has a point,” Wayfinder further analyzed, “Your companion lightin’ up has to do something with the trial. If you continue through a few more mirrors, you may figure it out, lad.”
Sooty lighting up suddenly wasn’t as much a concern, however. Especially if it were all just part of the trial, knowing he only had so much time, Luke decided not to dwell on it until another mirror or two were conquered.
“I’m surprised you didn’t take the chance to brag, Xera, knowing you. You managed to get to level 19 in just a few hours.” Luke scratched his chin, then continued, “Granted, there couldn’t be much better of a grinding spot, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t take nearly as much experience to level.”
“So you finally acknowledge my greatness. I knew I liked you!” Xera proved Luke’s read on her correct.
Getting used to redirecting conversation, Luke went in another direction with his words.
“I didn’t think much of those crystals when we first came here, but are they connected? That light beam is rather odd, otherwise.” His eyes had caught one crystal beaming light to another.
The beam stopped on the crystal above the mirror they just cleared. If he remembered right, the crystal before was dark, but now it was a radiant beacon. Deciding that he had three others to rely on, he asked if they remembered that crystal being the same way.
Wayfinder recollected the same. “Now that you mention it, lad, the crystal above that mirror with the feastin’ demons was dark as pitch before. Now that it’s shattered, the crystal from another mirror earlier lit it up as well.”
“I think that’s what happened last time? I was too busy slashing, hacking, and blasting to remember the details. This place was just so silent, too. How boring! But yeah, these crystals can change.” Xera tried to recall her experiences.
Sooty didn’t mind her change of state. Out of boredom, she started pecking at Luke’s feet. From the input of the Wayfinder and Xera, plus the indifference of Sooty, Luke began to account for each dark crystal. As it turned out, they made up over two out of three of the current crystals. The remaining third was a mixture of radiant light and muted, neutral, almost arcane crystals.
Each type of crystal was affixed to a mirror. Drawing the connections together, he realized the crux of this mirror hall.
“Connecting those crystals enough looks like it’ll lead up to the final door. That’s probably how to clear this place.” Luke explained out loud, mainly to himself and Sooty.
Scanning the Interface shortly, Luke realized there was no information on the next evolution for Xera. Her damage had significantly risen once more. Swinging her around, she giggled, a strange sight to him. At this rate, he might be called more wielder of the laughing sword than a Reaver. The air split easily. A faint ring and swish could be heard.
Luke judged which mirror would be best to go after next. The mirror diagonal to the one they just cleared had a dark crystal above it. "That’s going to be our next target.” He declared.
Before getting back into the action, the party’s gains were inspected. By this point, Xera’s damage had increased. Sooty was stuck at the cap, and so was he. The mirror realm creatures hadn’t dropped any items, not even silver. But at this point, that didn’t matter much to Luke. He just needed to ensure they still gave stats; if possible, he would use their experience and funnel it into Wayfinder.
The compass was often a back-seat tactician of his, and the abilities Wayfinder gave him were an edge this tomb didn’t account for. Following that logic, if Luke could gain one more ability or strengthen the current ones, he’d be as prepared as possible for the Spectral Lord. At least, as much as he thought he could be.
You’d think the Interface log would be extraordinarily long after all this time. Still, only three notices were left once Luke ignored experience gains and accounted for three of his party members maxing out at level 19.
[Experience overflow detected, excess experience applied to Wayfinder]
[You have stolen 340 HP, 60 Agility, 48 Strength, 72 Intellect]
[Quest Notice: Pass Mirror Realm Hall]
Reward: Companion gains 2 skill points
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Failure: Unable to move forward
Continue the trial, Reaver. Your heart will thank you.
Trying to avoid falling into the pace of the Interface, Luke pulled up his status screen. He’d been feeling a surge in all stats, making him more superhuman. But getting an exact number gave him an inexplicable comfort. Part of him found it easier to calculate his limits with that information.
[Luke]
Level: 19 (Trial Capped)
Class: Essence Reaver
Tier: 0
HP: 567 HP
Stats: 123 Agility, 125 Intellect, 120 Strength
Special Stats: 10 Fire Resist, 10 Frost Resist
Active Abilities 4/5: Infusion Tier I, Essence Bond IV, Essence Lance IV, Essence Fissure IV
Passive Abilities 1/3: Roll of the Reaver IV
Skill points: 4
Resource: 106 Essence 10.1/s regen
[Equipment]
[Inventory]
His Roll of the Reaver truly did work wonders. Luke's stats started to go above average for the first time since he entered this cave. Except for possibly the HP department. However, that one was growing the fastest and wouldn’t be much longer now.
A slight tension left his body. Techniques like trading blows had now become more worthwhile. Still, his nature wasn’t like that of a berserker, but more someone with moderate situational awareness in his battles.
Getting an exact idea of how many stats he could comfortably take or not would take a lot of work, with Roll of the Reaver adding a positive variance for him. Luke was getting a sense of some limit to this core mechanic of his class. He was too inexperienced to pinpoint what it was. Luke took Wayfinder off his neck. He stared sternly at the compass.
“What’s with the look, lad? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the barn today? Need me to fetch your mum?” Wayfinder teased.
“Accept the experience, Wayfinder. You can’t tell me taking on that entire mirror realm wasn’t enough to level you even once.” This was one of the issues nagging at Luke.
“If that’s the issue, lad, it’s simple enough. I can’t. You have to direct it yourself, that numpty of an Interface won’t tell you, but I will. An item like me can never forcibly take your experience. You have to send it to us,” Wayfinder replied, like an elder teaching.
“But the log said the excess experience would be applied to you already.”
The compass hummed for a moment. Luke noticed Sooty was peering up at the two of them, waiting.
“That’s the thing, isn’t it? Applied, not used me numpty of a Reaver. You could apply all the experience you want to me, holding it up until you leave this place. But I can’t use it unless you give permission.” Wayfinder, despite Luke’s tone, came across calmly in his explanation.
Wayfinder had a point, while he did express the desire to put his experience into Xera several times. He didn’t do the same for Wayfinder. Sending his intention to the Interface, another notice popped up.
[Wayfinder, the numbered artifact, has reached level 8]
“Me inner workings feel better than ever. Go on then, lad, you’ve unsealed another trick up me sleeve. But, I’ll give you a wee bit of advice - don’t get your hopes up for another anytime soon.” Wanting to give full disclosure, Wayfinder continued, “The next ability I’ve got in store is going to need a mountain’s worth of time and experience to unlock. Best you take this as the last tool I can give you.”
“I’ll take anything I can get right now. Let’s take a look.” Luke figured there would be a limit to Wayfinder, so he took his words in stride.
He scanned the Wayfinder's tooltip and found what he needed.
[Wayfinder]
Polar South: Grants user a fleeting insight, easier to discern patterns, and lasts longer as Polar South goes up in rank.
Cooldown: 10 Minutes
A sentient compass begrudgingly coming to terms with the fact that he must work with a certain sword wand. His needle is itchy.
The description of Polar South was ambiguous to Luke, but he figured insight could make up for his lack of experience. On that note, Temporal North had gone up to rank three and stopped there, much like Twilight Vanguard did. The only change was the cooldown, lowered from five minutes to three.
Taking his attention away from the compass, Luke set his eyes on Sooty again. Then, his eyes naturally landed on a muted crystal that was neither dark nor light—a connection formed in his mind. Wanting to test this new connection out, Luke called out to Sooty.
“Sooty, do you think you can fly and land on that crystal for a moment?” He pointed to the safest gray crystal, which happened to be above the mirror realm from which the skeletons came.
Stopping her fun of messing with Luke’s feet, Sooty flew over to the gray crystal and perched on it. Sure as rain, the brilliance from Sooty drained into the gray crystal. Instead of becoming radiant like the other two types of crystals, a misty silver beam was sent to a mirror in the row to the left. Connecting with a mirror in the second set in that row. The cloudy beam was absorbed and then dissipated.
Feeling like her job was done, Sooty came back down, landing on the silver-red stone near Luke.
“Interesting. So, to keep working on that type of crystal, will we have to go over to the other rows? I’ll leave it for now.” Luke voiced his plan to the group.
“As long as I get some action, I’ll do whatever!” Xera replied.
Rolling himself up, Luke felt more adjusted to the situation than ever. He and his team were figuring out the mystery of this mirror realm. The workings of the gray crystals may be wrong from what he assumed, but the dark and light crystals looked simple enough. With that in mind, his group returned to the shattered mirror with the Infernal demons.
Kicking around shards of shattered magical glass, Luke told Xera it was time to get to work. Looking only at the Infernal demon mirror realm, he placed Xera behind his back. Letting her see the mirror without the risk of it becoming unsealed. To have any sets of safe eyes on it, Wayfinder swung around and rested behind his back neck.
“What do you two see this time?”
Wayfinder let Xera give her assessment first.
“This one looks like fun! A bunch of level 17 void stalkers. Although, I can’t be sure of how many there are…” Xera grew confused for a moment and then kept talking. “But they’ll probably be easier for us than even the snake people. Not as difficult a mirror as our last one.”
“Aye, those void ruffians are the stealthy type. Even with us watching ‘em, not all of the kind will be revealed. Unless you take them with a grain of salt, this mirror would be a good one to test yourself out and leave one less risk in the row. You should clear it.” Wayfinder concurred with Xera this time.
Breathing in as he looked at the fiery landscape of the mirror realm he faced, Luke pat Sooty on her head with his free arm. She decided to roost on his head this time. Not that he minded.
"And what about you, Sooty?"
With her avian valor flavor, Sooty answered with a clear caw.
“Alright then, let’s get the show on the road.” Luke didn’t give himself time to second-guess his companions.
He readjusted Wayfinder back to his chest and gripped Xera. Placing Essence Bond on Xera, then Infusion on her and Sooty, the party was ready for the next challenge. Switching Xera to wand form, he unsheathed Whispering Edge while spinning around and pointed it forward.
Greeting his eyes were white-scaled reptilian beasts with beady eyes and black horns. His gaze now ruined the mirror realm containing them. Once the mirror opened up, Luke didn’t waste a moment. Not willing to give the void stalkers any advantage, Luke activated Wraith Wail on the monster in front.
These beasts were in for a rude surprise if they thought they could get the jump on him now.