Pride cometh before the fall. A quote that has never been truer than when applied to our old Gods. The Beast Gods thought themselves stronger, and the true rulers of mana had them slain by Dragons. The Man Gods thought themselves smarter, and the true rulers of mana let them die due to ignorance. While the Beast Gods died fighting and left countless scars on the surface of the world; the Man Gods died scheming and their bodies were buried deep within Aven’s crust. Forgotten and unknown, not a trace of any Man Gods name remains.
* An excerpt from ‘The Mortal Immortal’ by Philosopher Irepides of Aven
Ava POV
I awoke to the sounds of my team chatting around me while several system notices clouded my vision. I pushed the system notifications away for the moment, choosing to ignore them in favor of checking in with the team. I knew something was wrong the second that I tried to stand, my legs didn’t respond and my body fell backwards onto its side.
“Son of a bitch!” I cursed in pain as my head banged against the stone ground.
“Ava!” Lias' worried voice shouted out and I soon felt her arms wrapping around me as she helped me sit up and lean against her.
“Ava, you were injured badly. Everything below the waist was taking off. I managed to heal back down to your upper thighs, but your legs are still missing.” Lia gently explained as she hugged me.
I was in shock for only a moment, the memories of the agonizing pain returning for a flash. Yet I easily suppressed and ignored them. I remembered the damage that I had done to my mana veins and cautiously started moving my mana around to check the damage. I found that most of my mana veins had already recovered from the abuse, but my Unleashed Potential spell would be unusable for a while. I would likely have to take at least a week off from adventuring, which meant the rest of the party would also be forced to take a break.
“I’m sorry for my recklessness.” I meekly whispered barely loud enough for Lia to hear me as I realized what I’d done. If I had gotten slightly less lucky, or used slightly too much mana I could’ve ended up permanently crippled. Just thinking of being crippled caused me to start cycling mana to finish healing my legs.
Lia heaved a deep sigh and hugged me tightly.
“I forgive you, but only because it was thanks to you that all of us survived. Just please try not to be so reckless with your future, if you lost your mana it would be the end of Ava’s Own.” Lia said with tears in her eyes.
“I still didn’t agree to that party name.” I grumbled
“It doesn’t matter 'cause you were outvoted.” Lia said with a laugh as tears ran down her cheeks.
It was only then that I noticed the wetness of my own eyes. For some reason my mental and emotional states felt separated as though I was two different people. I allowed part of myself to cry and laugh with Lia while we embraced while this new analytical side opened up my system notifications to check them.
Fortunately the first ones I had answered a lot of my questions.
Ability: Unbreakable Will (Legendary) has increased to level 2
Ability: Unbreakable Will (Legendary) has increased to level 3
Ability: Unbreakable Will (Legendary) has synthesized a new sub-ability Mind and Soul (Legendary). Mind and Soul will be tied to Unbreakable Will and will level alongside it.
Ability: Mind and Soul (Legendary)
Your intellectual and emotional states have been separated into two lines of thought capable of both individual action and perfect cooperation. Your Mind state has its Intelligence increased scaling with your Willpower. Your Soul state has its Perception increased scaling with your Willpower You can activate and deactivate this ability at will.
Ava deactivated the new sub-ability and instantly felt normal again. Of course feeling normal meant that the weight of everything she was feeling was suddenly affecting her thinking again. The pain, sadness, relief all combined to make it impossible to do anything but feel. At least most of her emotional venting had been done in the separated state of Mind and Soul, which meant that she and Lia were able to recover at around the same time.
As Adventurers we could rarely afford to process our emotions properly since our lives were constantly on the line, but a good cry after a hard fought battle was pretty standard. At least for Lia and I it was standard. Z also joined in sometimes just by the nature of his ability given empathy. Hal and Jay were more stoic, to the point where I often worried about their mental health.
Once I finished calming down I made sure to check in with everyone else. I also took that time to get caught up on what had happened after I had passed out, Jay also listened in since he lost consciousness as soon as his spell had hit. Once I was filled in on what had happened I felt much better about my decision. Hurting my mana veins was worth it if it meant saving the lives of my entire team.
With all of us caught up with what happened I decided to ask the question that had been burning in the back of my mind.
“If we won then why are we still in the boss room?” I ask.
“Read through your system notifications, it should explain it. And while you do that, rest so that your legs can finish healing.” Lia says while making me lay down again.
I look down towards my legs to see that my passive mana cycling has already grown them back to the top of the knee. I pump some more mana into it to help it go faster and allow Lia to guide my head to a pillow which she procured from somewhere. The softness of the pillow makes me really glad for whatever super-maid training dad gave to her.
I open back up my system and once again start from the notifications about my ability. I skip past them and continue reading through all the notifications that came after them.
Third Floor Boss: Wyrm of Duality Defeated!
Progression has been updated!
The 10th layer of the Third Floor, the Wyrm’s Lair, will remain sealed for 12 hours. You are free to mine the ores found in its lair during this time.
You have unlocked the Quest: The Forest of Endings
You have unlocked the Quest: True Completion
You have gained 2000 EC
Quest Complete: Clearing the Mines!
Rewards for Quest: Clearing the Mines
Progression has been updated!
Your inventory has gained 10 slots and 1 save slot
You have received the Eternal Pickaxe
You have gained 500 EC
Level increased to 37 (New Stat Points Available)
Level increased to 38 (New Stat Points Available)
I also had a few Skill and Spell level up notifications but I ignored those. A spell or skill increase was the result of proven competency with it. The system acknowledging the level up was simply it telling you that it would now give that skill or spell extra support, usually in the form of a reduced mana cost or slight bonus to effect.
I also had one string of notifications that stood out as much as her ability leveling did.
Enhanced Lifeform has increased to Superior 1
* * * Error: User Class incapable of supporting Superior Advancement * * *
Ascension is necessary
* * * Error: User Cannot Ascend * * *
Experience will be held until advancement
That was really weird. It was always known that it was impossible to level up a skill with a rank higher than your classes past level 0, in fact it was the entire reason level 0 existed at all. Yet I had never heard of or seen a notification like this before, it was accepted that it was impossible to gain any experience on a capped skill/spell. Yet this string of notifications seemed to imply that if I somehow managed to practice a capped skill or spell then the experience would be cached for when I finally upgraded my class.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The entire thing was still really concerning. If it was the case that experience could still be gained and saved for later, then why have I never heard about it? I had some of the best tutors that my father could afford to help me when I was younger and they certainly never kept anything secret. I had learned about every aspect of the system I would experience all the way up until level 200. Two star people were more rare on Aveneast and therefore also more secretive about their system.
There wasn’t much I could do about it at the moment. I decided to bring it up with the Guildmaster and pushed the notifications out of my mind for now. I returned my attention back to the real world now that my initial question had been answered.
“So we get to mine in the boss room for 12 hours and it’s sealed shut from anyone else until that time expires.” I said aloud to make sure I understood.
“Yep, that’s the gist of it. Also while it doesn’t say it in the notifications it looks like we aren’t allowed to loot the Wyrm’s Lair except for the ores.” Lia says while gesturing around the room.
I look around and notice that all of the piles of treasure are gone. All of the alcoves that contained the treasure are now sealed behind solid stone. The only alcoves still open are the one that contained the door into the boss room as well as one opposite of it that contains a stone plate that resembles one of the teleport stations the dungeon uses.
“What happened to all of the treasure that we pulled out of the alcoves?” I ask.
“It disappeared. Teleportation magic I think. The alcoves sealed up and then the treasure outside of them all vanished in a flash of purple light.” Lia explained.
“Well that’s a shame. At least the rewards for defeating the boss and completing the mine quest make up for it. How long have I been asleep? How much time is left on the seal?” I ask.
“You’ve been out for almost the entire twelve hours. We have maybe another half hour left before the seal comes undone. I’m glad you woke up before the seal ended, otherwise we might’ve had to move you while injured.” Lia explains.
“I’m also glad to have woken up Lia. Now, what have you guys been up to while I was out?” I ask as I use my inventory to put on a new pair of undergarments, pants, socks, and boots now that I’m done regenerating and able to clean myself with a quick spell.
“Jay spent most of the time asleep, he passed out same as you did only difference was he was less fucked up. He woke up two hours ago and has been studying both the boss room and the new pickaxe we all got.” Lia says while helping me stand up and get used to my legs again.
“The pickaxe? Really?” I ask incredulously.
“Yeah it has some weird enchantment on it that makes it indestructible as well as an ability that makes it easier for you to mine with it. It seems to actively purify whatever metal you mine with it into a large chunk of ore that’s 90% the metal in the vein. Jay’s been trying to figure out how it works and whether or not it requires the dungeon to function. Second part is harder to test until we leave, but you know how he is.” Lia explains, clearly amused by the idea of Jay studying something as mundane as a pickaxe.
“What about Hal and Z?” I ask after sharing a laugh with her.
“Not curious about what I’ve been doing this whole time?” Lia says with a fake pout.
“Based on the last time I got injured, I’m pretty sure you’ve been sitting by my side the whole time watching over me.” I say with a smile.
“Of course! It’s my job to look after you!” Lia shouts.
“Your job as my personal attendant or your job as my sister?” I ask with a tilt of my head.
“Both, you dummy.” Lia says, flicking my forehead while a smile spreads across her face.
“Hey! I’m injured!” I cry out in mock pain as she flicks me.
“You’ll live, I didn’t even imbue my finger with mana this time.” Lia replies sarcastically.
“Hal and Z spent a few hours with me recovering after the fight. Then they both decided to test out the new pickaxes we were given and started mining the ore veins in the walls. The easier to access ones were all iron, copper, and silver. Then they started working on the gold veins which required them to get down towards the water. Last I checked they were working with Jay to try and figure out how to get to the mithril ore which is at the bottom of the dropshaft below 80 feet of water.” Lia explains, finally answering my initial question.
“Well we should probably go check in on them and let them know that I’m alright. We should also make sure that they aren’t doing something stupid.” I say walking towards the center of the area where the dropshaft is located.
As we get closer I can hear the voices of the boys echoing up from the hole.
“Don’t be dumb, there’s no way that ice will hold your weight!”
“Trust me, it’ll work.”
“Yeah Jay! Don’t worry, I got this!”
The voices are immediately followed by the sound of ice cracking along with several shouted expletives and the splash of something falling into water.
“Oh god, we’re too late” Lia says in mock horror as we finally reach the edge and look down.
A thin layer of ice covered the top of the water that filled the bottom third of the dropshaft. An exasperated Jay was reforming the sheet of ice into large tendrils and using them to fish a cold and waterlogged Hal out of the water. The entire time Z was off to the side laughing his ass off at the whole thing.
“Damn I really thought I had it there.” Hal said the moment he was back on the small rock ledge they had created by the water’s surface.
“I told you that gravity magic is even harder than metal magic. Just because the Guildmaster gave you an introductory spell book for it doesn’t mean you can cast it!” Jay chastises him while using his water magic to dry Hal off.
“What are you three doing down there!” I call down to them causing each of them to jump slightly.
“Ava!” All three of them call out in a mixture of joy and surprise.
“Hold on, we'll be right up!” Z calls out to me now that my voice has shocked him out of his laughter.
“You can finish what you're doing if it's important, I’m not going anywhere.” I shout.
Z suddenly appears from a shadow next to me causing me to jump slightly in surprise.
“I’m so glad you’re ok!” He says while hugging me, tears forming on the edges of his eyes,
“Geez Z, there’s no need to cry about it. I’m fine, ok.” I say while returning his embrace.
“Don’t even act like you and Lia didn’t already cry about it. Just let me have this.” He says with a slight laugh.
I resign myself to my position and simply allow him to have his moment of relief. By the time Z is finished Jay and Hal have finally climbed their way back up and another round of hugs is demanded. I make sure not to struggle against anyone's affections until they’re all certain that I’m alright. Jay is the most reserved, simply giving me a single hug and proclaiming that he knew I’d pull through.
Once we’re all caught up and feeling better we all gather around in a circle so that I can finish getting everyone’s perspectives on the fight. We always have a post-fight debrief so that we can figure out everything we did right and what we did wrong. After that is done we spend a few minutes sorting out how much we got from the bossfight.
After a few rounds of questioning I was able to determine that we all got the same rewards from the quest and from defeating the boss. Z and Hal also informed me that they were pretty much done with the mining. We simply didn’t have the proper equipment to mine mithril while underwater, especially considering the pressure of the water at an 80 foot depth.
If Jay was a pure water caster he might be able to do something about it, but as a blizzard affinity caster his pure water magic was weakened. Despite that Jay could probably still find some kind of solution, a ritual spell or some kind of special enchantment maybe, but there’s no way he could’ve done it with the time left. After our conversations we only had another 5 minutes before the seal would end.
“Do you think we should try and stay past the seal’s ending point?” Jay asked as we all walked towards the teleportation platform on the other side of the boss room.
“Why would we do that?” Hal asks in a confused tone.
“So that we know for certain if the boss respawns as soon as the seal disappears or if there’s still more leeway. If the room unseals but the boss doesn’t respawn then any group behind us could gather anything we leave behind or we could stay and gather it. I’m pretty sure if I spend another hour or two I could figure out how to get past the water.” Jay says his explanation tapering off into theoretical mumblings.
“It’s not a bad idea. We can wait right next to the teleportation platform, that way if it seals up we can still leave. Knowledge is power and with everything already stashed in our inventories there's not much risk. We got enough EC to spare one revive if it comes to it.” Z says.
“I thought we agreed on not taking our lives lightly just because the dungeon has a revival mechanic.” I lightly chastise him.
“I know, I know. But still it's worth a shot isn’t it? The more we know about the dungeon the better.” Z continues, trying to convince me.
“Fine, we can stay for a bit to check the mechanic.” I say giving in.
“Hold on there Ava. There’s no way I’m letting you stay anywhere but a safezone, you're still injured remember?” Lia says, her gaze boring into me.
“It’s fine, I’ll stay by myself. I have the best mobility and survivability. Plus we only risk my life.” Z says.
“I don’t like leaving anyone by themselves, what if us teleporting out causes something to change?” I query my voice worried.
“Then that would be information worth knowing.” Z says with a smile motioning to the teleportation platform as we arrive at it.
Z makes a few hand signs to me while everyone else follows his gesture to look at the teleportation platform. The signs inform me that he has one of his gut feelings and to trust him.
“Fine.” I say with a resigned sigh. “I trust you, be safe.”
I walk past Z and onto the teleportation platform, Lia accompanies me while Z finishes convincing both Jay and Hal that they don’t need to stay with him. Once everyone but Z is on the platform I activate it, giving him one last nod before my surroundings warp and I find myself back inside Wyla on the second floor.
======================================================
Z POV
“And now I wait.” I say to myself as my system clock counts down the seconds until the seal ends. I know that we were being followed back on the ninth layer and I need to find out why. I made a promise to protect my friends from my past, even if that promise is only to myself. I hope that it's just some idiots looking for easy progression or perhaps another kidnapper looking to grab Ava. Both are things I’ve handled before with relative ease.
However my hopes for this being easy aren’t high. Whoever they were clearly had some idea of how my specific perception methods worked as they were able to evade half of my skills as well as my ability. Every skill I caught them with was one that I had earned or evolved since my time with the Adventurers Guild. Which means that their info is from my old life, info that unfortunately for them is almost half a year out of date.
The real question is, who from the Thieves Guild wants something from me and how did they figure out I’m still alive. Hopefully my pursuers are the chatty type.