“Oh thank god,” uttered Barry as he sank down into the waist high water and began scrubbing himself vigorously.
His hunch has been correct, and this corridor had quickly filled with clear blue water that was gently flowing towards him. Barry’s clothing, with the exception of his boots, soon became clean thanks to the liquid and the items inherent self-repair features. But his skin still felt dirty no matter how hard he scrubbed. He gurgled the water to try and get the smell and muck out from his mouth and nose. Finally, after ten minutes of nonstop cleaning he began to feel sufficiently cleansed and he continued pushing forward upstream.
After a further ten or so minutes Barry reached the end of the corridor and found himself looking out at another circular open space. This area was completely covered in water that looked much darker and deeper than the liquid in the corridor. Zipping along the water’s surface there were ten large spider creatures. The beasts’ cylindrical bodies were at least twice as long as Barry was tall. They had extremely long, thin legs that travelled diagonally upwards and outwards a metre or so before making a right turn and heading diagonally down towards the water. They had a fanged maw at the front of their head and above that rested eight eyes that flittered about in all directions. In the centre of the space was a platform, but this one did not have any beast or being resting atop it. Instead, Barry could see a single glowing green watering can that he instantly inspected along with one of the spiders.
Inspection:
Heaven’s watering can: A watering can that contains an endless supply of the most pristine water available. This item can automatically provide a single plant with the perfect amount of hydrating water without risk of under or over watering.
Inspection:
Beast: Aquatic web skipper
Level: 20
Stat: Mana
Race skill ‘inspection’ has increased in rarity from basic to enhanced.
“Well, that was unexpected,” thought Barry as he read the messages.
Not the stuff about the watering can or the web skipper, but about his skill. Apparently, he had levelled up his skill, something that’s he didn’t even know he could do. He also had no idea what changes the upgrade would mean for his skill so he decided to use it again and see.
Inspection:
Beast: Aquatic web skipper
Level: 20
Stats: Mana 70, Dexterity 58
Info: Aquatic web skippers are water variants of the giant arachnid web skippers most commonly found on the planet Arkin. They are known for their magical web-based attacks that they shoot from their mouths. These webs are able to both entangle their foes and quickly drain their stamina.
“That is amazing!” exclaimed Barry before quickly bringing his hand back over his mouth in regret, worried that he would attract the attention of one of these beasts.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem as if that was the case and he went back to studying the information. It was so detailed, and so much more useful than his old inspection skill. Not only did it provide information of the main stat the beast had like before, but it also provided the level. This would be invaluable moving forward. In fact, double the usefulness because Barry also received information regarding what he assumed was the second highest stat of the creature as well. And to top it all off there was even a description of the beast which gave him an insight into how they might fight.
“Knowledge is power,” grinned Barry as he decided to inspect a couple more of the spiders.
He found that although they all had slightly higher or lower mana or dexterity levels, they all specialised in those two skills to some extent. He also re-inspected the watering can but he found the information was unchanged. Regardless, he was over the moon with the upgrade and he decided to turn his attention back to the task at hand, getting that watering can.
Barry started by creating a clone beside him as a safety net. He had never been a strong swimmer given his previously frail body. In fact, even baths scared him as he feared if his head slipped under, he wouldn’t have had the strength to get it back above water. He knew he only had to get around thirty metres away from the platform in order to summon a clone onto it, and from there it would be as simple as using clone transfer, grabbing the can, and then using clone transfer again to return to his clone in the corridor. The only question was how to gain the first twenty metres or so of ground, ideally without getting into the water with these giant spiders.
After some pondering Barry finally decided to create a series of stepping stones in the air using his barriers, and run across them before the spiders realised he was there. He took a big breath, and then instantly summoned ten barriers at two metre intervals above the water. His advanced strength meant that even a jump of this distance was no bother for him and he quickly starting leaping across from one barrier to another whilst keeping his null magic skin skill active. The web skippers hissed as they spotted the intruder within their lair, and within seconds all ten of them had surrounded him and were shooting strings of glowing magical web in his direction. Barry’s magical defensive skill was doing a fantastic job of repelling the web’s that managed to strike him, but the waves of glowing strings disrupted his vision just enough that he lost his balance and found himself falling towards the water before he had even made it to the fifth barrier.
As he was about to activate his clone transfer skill he looked down and saw he was about to fall directly onto the back of a web skipper that was positioned below him. Wanting to conserve his clone transfer uses Barry had a crazy thought and he allowed himself to drop onto the creatures thorax. Immediately, he hooked both legs around its sides and summoned his aura chain between each hands. Then, before the web skipper knew what had happened, he flung the middle of his chain forward and into its mouth as a makeshift rein. The surprised spider tried desperately to free itself of Barry’s grip by bucking it’s head and snarling angrily, but it was all for nought. The creature was not designed to be able to deal with an opponent who had mounted its back, so instead it began to skip frantically and sporadically along the top of the water in all directions.
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Meanwhile, it’s fellow beasts were launching their web attacks forward at Barry, many of which hit the spider and tangled its legs until eventually it began to sink down into the water. Barry wasn’t worried though, as fortunately the creature had got him just close enough to the platform before it fell that he could activate his duplication skill and drop a clone on top of the space. After following up with a clone transfer Barry snapped up the watering can, threw it in his spatial sack, and activated clone transfer again to return to the corridor entrance. Barry was thankful that the range of his connection to his clones was still far greater than the range at which he could summon them, making this larger teleport possible. Finally, he dispelled his clones and started rapidly wading away from the enclosed lake. The web skippers quickly realised they had been duped, and were suddenly at the entrance to the opening, shooting webs towards his fleeing form. Barry finally got far enough away from the web skipper that their attacks could no longer reach him, and he dispelled his null magic skin just before it would have timed out anyway. He was utterly drenched, but thankfully he seemed to have shaken off all the smell from the previous room. He would trade a little water to avoid that stench any day of the week. Amazingly, he was completely unharmed from his altercation with the spiders, thanks to his powerful magical defensive armour skill. So, with a smile, he slowly ambled his way back to the tree of life, ready to add some water to the growing plant.
As he removed the watering can from his spatial sack and tilted it down over the base of the large sapling, Barry got a shock as the can started floating and pouring by itself. He instinctively stepped back as the can continued to cover the entire platform in water that quickly absorbed into the dirt. Just like before the tree responded by pulsing and glowing until it shot upwards and grew outwards rapidly. Before long the tree’s trunk took up half of the space of the twenty-metre-wide platform and its top smashed through the second shimmering barrier. In turn the silver loot box fell down to the ground with exceptional speed and crashed into the ground. Somehow the box was again unharmed despite the seventy-metre drop.
“What exactly are these things made of?” thought Barry as he popped the latches and pulled out a small stone, similar to the previous ones he had found earlier in the training grounds.
The stone fit neatly in his palm and was a crystal blue colour.
Inspection:
Aqua stone: Creates a burst of water around the space at which it is activated for ten seconds. One time use.
Barry had found the previous light and smoke stone incredibly useful, so he was pleased to receive this aqua variant. It also seemed an appropriate reward considering the watery challenge he had just completed. So, after throwing it in his spatial sack, he moved over to the yellow corridor that was emanating an intense heat and made his way in, looking forward to drying off. It felt like he was walking through an oven that was only getting warmer the further along he traversed. His drenched clothes dried quickly before becoming wet again from the buckets of sweat that were seeping out of his skin.
“Just when I get rid of the fertiliser stench I replace it with body odour,” Barry sighed as he pushed his way towards the opening to the next section.
This time there was something different about the space that he walked into. Instead of being a large open area, he found himself facing three entrances to more enclosed corridors.
“Maybe a maze?” thought Barry as he studied the entry ways for any clue as to the correct route.
When he saw no such signs, he simply picked the left most corridor for himself, summoned a trio of clones and sent one down the other two paths, leaving the third clone behind which was his usual tactic.
The heat continued to increase as he got further into the winding corridor, and he could feel his health being impacted from the intensity of it. Little by little the stifling temperature chipped away at his health points, but his large health pool and rapid regeneration rate was able to combat it comfortably provided he could manage the discomfort from the heat and sweat. He eventually came across various other t intersections where one would normally have to decide where to go. But not Barry. He simply created more clones and sent them off to cover all possible routes. Barry was thankful for his increased soul magic and mana levels that allowed him to create and manage so many clones at once. Within a few minutes one of Barry’s clones successfully completed the maze and he instantly used clone transfer to reach the raised sandy platform and pluck the item in its centre, a twenty-centimetre, warm, yellow cube. Barry then retraced the steps of the clone by leaning on his improved memory from his high willpower level, and before long he was back in the main corridor and then out in the open space near the massive sapling tree. Barry took a moment to enjoy the cooler air against his skin, before removing his recently acquired item and examining it.
Inspection:
Pocket sun: A cube containing a pocket-sized sun that provides the perfect amount of sunlight to promote the growth of a single plan without risk of burning or killing the plant.
When Barry pushed the cube towards the tree he saw the outer casing dissolve in the air, revealing a small yellow-orange sphere that floated in the air before rising up and spiralling around the entirety of the tree at a consistent pace. Meanwhile, the watering can continued to move around the base of the tree providing adequate hydration to the plant. As the tree began to pulsate and glow, Barry stepped back and looked up, ensuring he wasn’t in the drop zone of the gold loot box that was resting atop the shimmering barrier that covered the sky well over a hundred metres in the air. As the tree of life grew it once again smashed through the barrier. The colossal plant had advanced from the sapling stage into a young tree. The gold loot box slammed down into the ground a few metres from Barry and created a large crater in the earth around its landing site. Popping open the latches Barry pulled out a strange face mask in the shape of some demonic being. It was red, with piercing green eyes and an open mouth with protruding fangs from both jaws. Puzzled, Barry inspected the item.
Inspection:
Mask of the cult (rare): A face mask worn by followers of the devil god Vhiskas. This mask grants 5 additional points to the manipulation stat when worn.
For someone training manipulation this would be a wonderful item. For Knob it would be an amazing addition. But for Barry, this thing was useless.
“I’m saving this for you buddy,” Barry said to himself as he gazed up at the massive, majestic tree and thought of his friend.
The tree was now so tall that he couldn’t even see the top of it from this angle and its higher branches stretched out far beyond the perimeter of the space that he stood within. He could just see the shimmering outline of what he assumed was the last barrier way up in the sky.
“One to go,” said Barry to himself as he made his way to the white glowing corridor and walked forward into the powerful headwind that blew out towards him.
The strong winds slowed Barry’s walk and it took him much longer to reach the open space of the fourth room. Within this space there was nothing but powerful swirling winds in every direction that were just visible to the naked eye. In the centre of the space was another platform with a small clear bag resting atop it. The only other thing to note within this cavern was that the rocky walls and ceiling were covered in long, razor sharp spikes. Barry dug his hand into the ground and picked up a large clump of stone. He then threw the stone into the room just after one of the swirling winds passed the opening. The rock flew and fell to the ground, where it rested for barely a second, before the next swirling wind passed, sweeping up the stone and propelling it into the closest spiked wall.
Barry frowned at the sight as he thought, “Note to self, don’t get caught up in the wind.”
Now that a bit of time had passed Barry could feel that he had a decent amount of his null magic skin remaining, plus a few clone transfers. So he activated his duplication skill, leaving a clone behind, followed closely by his null magic skin. He figured if his magical defence was all he needed then that would be great, and if not, he could probably just jump forward with one or two uses of his clone transfer. Then, he sprinted forward directly towards the centre of the area as fast as he could manage. He felt the multiple waves of air crash into him with tremendous force attempting to sweep him away to the side and into the walls. But thankfully his skill held up, and in less than five seconds he found himself putting the clear bag into his spatial sack. Additionally, when his feet touched the platform, he felt his soul magic level move up to nineteen from his efforts which was a pleasant surprise. After clone transferring back out of the space, Barry returned to the monstrous tree and dispersed his free points between strength and dexterity, bringing them to a total of seventeen, finally in line with his stamina after all bonuses were included. Barry had felt a bit bad about basically cheating the final zone with his abilities, that was until he received the level up.
“It can’t be wrong if I’m getting rewarded, I suppose,” he thought as he studied the fourth item.
Inspection:
Purified air: A container of condensed, purified air that provides the optimal external environment for plant growth. Once opened the air will circulate around a specific area.
Without hesitation, Barry pierced the bag and released the air into the area around the tree of life. The cleansing air swirled upwards into the space around the tree. The tree responded to the altered air and soon started to grow to unbelievable proportions. Its trunk now took up the entirety of the platform, and the height of the tree was immeasurable. The crown of the monstrous tree extended into the clouds, and it took a few seconds for the final loot box to crash into the earth near Barry. He grinned manically at the sight, and quickly ran over to the platinum box on the ground.