Mathew apparently gained levels and had a Rank Up for his [Mana Shield] Ability on top of a brand new spell.
He assigned his nine free stat points into Endurance, knowing he will need every chance of survival against the Apprentice Floor Boss he can get. Both his Dexterity and Endurance were falling behind surprisingly. Which, now that he thought of it, was because those were the two stats he had known to be related to his soul.
He has passively been ignoring those stats. Choosing to focus more on the other four. Strength and Vitality for his body. Intelligence and Wisdom for his mind. That’s what the book he read referenced.
However, after his meditation, he could always change that. It would take a long time, but if he started to change how he, Mathew, chose each stat to reflect who he was, then perhaps he could become a better version of himself. It was a wordy understanding, but it was plausible. He knew he could do it, but does he want to?
The rank up for [Mana Shield] was interesting, as he had four to choose from, but also some words within them.
Ability Rank Up: Mana Shield
Elemental Adept: Allow your Mana Shield to gain an Elemental Affinity of your choice. (Once you select this option, you will pick an element afterwards)
Double Shields: You can create two shields at once, with a 150% increase to mana cost for the second shield.
Bolster Size: Your shields can be created into larger sizes. Mana cost scales with size increase.
Increased Resistance: Mana Shield has improved damage mitigation. Additionally, your Mana Shield gains a second layer that is required to be broken through.
The first thing he noticed was two words. Bolster and Resistance. Both were the names of two Axioms he exclusively had used with this Ability since he had gotten it. He mostly used Resistance, as that’s what he focused the most on. Only once or twice using Bolster, but each being an effective use.
The second was the Elemental choice. Echoes of his [Mana Bolt] spell came to his mind for when it was first rankup.
Knowing what he does now, the first choice was redundant. He could always infuse his own mana, or even his newest Axiom into the Ability, giving it that ‘cold’ element. It would be the only choice he picked regardless. He had an inkling of a path, he could feel it. To deviate now, would put him back at square one.
The other three were all fabulous choices. The second and third choice added a sense of utility. Allowing him to protect from two directions, or to cover a larger area in one direction. The fourth doubled down on what he used the shield for, making him able to protect himself more.
The one thing he wanted to know was if picking a choice related to an Axiom would solidify that path. It reminded him of his class choices. There was one that mentioned his Axiom’s. Resistance was his highest ranked Axiom. So, it made sense for it to appear eventually in his choices.
Bolster was Beginner rank, but he has used it a lot. All for his physical body, and once with Jeffery. Realizing he could use his Axiom’s on his summons was a game changer. If he could figure out how to concentrate on more than one Axiom at a time, he could become far more powerful than any other human on Earth.
Doubly so if Cherry and Agnox can use their own Axiom’s as well. He doubted Jeffery or even the Wisps could learn an Axiom. Yet, he didn’t think Agnox could learn one in the first place, so anything was possible.
Mathew was torn. His first choice was to pick either an Axiom themed choice, or not. He thought of how he used the shield thus far. He used it exclusively to block attacks. That was the purpose of a shield. He had no other defensive powers.
Then he looked behind him. He didn’t see any of his summons, but knew they were not far. He was the central point that connected them all. Without him, they couldn’t function as a team.
If he could create larger or more shields, he could not only protect himself, but his summons. Several times his Wisps have been taken out from stray attacks. If he could block an attack for someone like Cherry, that would ensure his healer was safe.
That secured his choice. Mathew picked the double option and moved down to his newest spell. It was lengthy. Probably his longest description of any of his powers. Yet, also, possibly his strongest excluding Agnox and Cherry.
Summon Elemental: Novice 1
You can summon one of three elemental types: Lightning, Earth, and Ice. Each Elemental will remain until either destroyed or dismissed. They are physical elements given shape by your own mana, and until that mana is dissipated, you can not regain it.
Each Elemental has been given an individualized trait predetermined on your perspective of each element you have internalized.
Lightning Elemental(Support): This elemental will infuse itself into a set of armor, weapon, or similar item giving its wielder a buff to their speed.
Earth Elemental(Tank): This Elemental will stand sturdy, taking on attacks from enemies for allies.
Ice(Deteriorate): This Elemental will slowly whittle down enemies. Causing them to succumb to a slow and painful death.
You can only have a maximum of three elements at a time. Additionally, you can not have more than two of the same kind summoned at once.
Mathew let out a long whistle. This was far beyond what he expected. He essentially had three powers in one. Each elemental was a unique way to use in combat. He wanted to summon each of them to see how they worked, but he waited to take a quick glance at his menu first.
Name: Mathew McGonald
Race: Human [Apprentice]
Class: Summoner
Profession: Leader
Level: 47
Universal Currency: 351,595
Titles: Big 100, Child of Axiom, Classy, Dungeoneer VII, False Life, Forerunner, Hearth Crystal Owner, Lawyer, Pack Leader, Solo Delver III, Soloist, Survivor II, Warlock, Willful Power
Axioms:
Glint of Bolster [Beginner], Glint of Cold [Beginner], Glint of Enforce [Beginner], Glint of Pattern [Novice], Glint of Piercing [Beginner], Glint of Resistance [Apprentice]
Strength:
302
Vitality:
306
Dexterity:
276
Endurance:
236
Intelligence:
619
Wisdom:
698
Unallotted Stat Points: 0
Glint of Cold [Beginner]: +30 Int, +10 End, +10 Wis
“An entire 30 Int. Stack that with all my bonuses to my stats, it’s essentially 50 Int almost. I need to start bringing up my Dexterity and Endurance. [Trinity’s Manual] heavily references keeping my stats close together in number. No more than a 20% deviation, and now, it is looking more than that.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Mathew did some mental math and realized that his highest and lowest stat are nearly doubled in difference. A whole 100%. He winced and grumbled in annoyance. This was something he would need to address once he was out of the dungeon.
He redressed himself, and walked back to where he left his summons. He found all three of them sitting around a fire, huddled together.
“Y-Y-YOU!” Cherry pointed a finger at Mathew. “The last t-t-ten hours, noth-th-thing but freezing cold! All the fire in the w-w-world couldn’t keep us warm!”
Cherry was currently wrapped up with Jeffery, using his fur as her personal insulation. Agnox was right next to her, also shivering.
Mathew raised an eyebrow, “How is that my fault?”
“Your d-d-damn Axiom of Ice or wh-wh-whatever it is-s-s! We can feel it too! The entire f-f-fucking place dropped in t-t-temperat-t-ture to feel like the asshole of the m-m-m-moon!” Agnox complained, not able to come up with a good human reference in the cold of the moment.
Mathew rolled his eyes. “How was I supposed to know that was my fault”
“You c-c-could have w-w-warned us-s-s! O-o-or went f-f-f-further away!” Agnox yelled between chattering teeth.
“Fine. Let me try to make it less cold for you.” He didn’t think it would work, but Mathew tried to control the air around him. He pushed his concept of the Axiom to try and cause the wind around them to come to a still. Yet nothing happened. Instead it just became colder.
“Unsummon us y-y-you idiot!” Cherry yelled, shivering more.
Mathew sighed and did exactly that. Brining all of them back into himself. He wondered for a moment if being inside someone with an Axiom of Cold would make it cold for them too. He shrugged, “I’ll find out when I summon them again.”
With nothing else to do but wait for the horde outside to die down, Mathew decided to test his newest summons.
The mana cost to summon one of them was huge. It was more than Jeffery has ever cost. If not for his mana channels to improve his efficiency with mana cost, he doubted he could summon one and have enough mana to do anything else.
He decided to pick the Earth Elemental first. Instead of something manifesting, the actual rock and stone near him rose out of the ground. A hulking humanoid figure stood. There was no face.
Just two arms and two shorter legs. Its overall size reached nine feet in height. It was built wide and thick. Mathew doubted anything less than a raging bull could force it to move.
He found it worked like how his Wisps worked. With mental thoughts, he could move the golem. However, it was slow. Super slow. Mathew doubted he could reliably summon this thing and keep it around while traveling across the desert sand.
His mana barely recovered. Mathew realized he couldn’t have all his summons out at once. He finally reached a point where he needed to pick and choose his summons as needed. That is, unless he didn’t want to participate in a fight in a meaningful way.
Mathew dismissed the elemental. The rocks fell apart, and his mana started to slowly regenerate. Once it was full, he pulled out a few mana cores from his personal storage.
He was down to only Novice, but there were a couple rituals he could have prepared ahead of time. Mainly the cooling one for Cherry.
The remaining hours were spent in preparation for his final fight. Whatever floor Boss he fought, it was going to end in one of two ways. Either he walked away alive, or he died.
Mathew and his main three summons walked out of the Lost Souls Dungeon out onto the hot and arid sand. Instantly, he cooled himself off with his newest Axiom. He couldn’t directly affect the air without it already being cold it seemed. However, his own body was a perfect target. His internal temperature dropped a few degrees, allowing him to stand out in the heat without a sweat. Cherry still required her own cooling ritual however.
Agnox took off into the air. Today began the hunt for a Floor Boss. There was less than a week left to get out. Mathew had no clue what would happen if he stayed in too long and didn’t get out beforehand.
Best case, he spat out and lost all his belongings, as if he popped his token. Worst case…well at first he assumed he would die. Yet, there is a chance he could always end up with a fate worse than death.
He pushed those thoughts out of his head. No need to be negative right now, only focus on the task at hand.
Agnox flew around a few circles and landed on the sand. “I see nothing for miles. Not even a Challenge portal.”
Mathew nodded understandingly. “Alright. Let’s pick a direction and walk until we find something.”
----------------------------------------
Captain Henderson walked back into Blue Oaks. A small medical tent was set up. Several people rushed to her, one of which helped prop her up.
She was exhausted. Yet, she was alive. Doctor Gloria was waiting for her in the tent. “I’m glad to see you make it out alive. You look terrible.” Her eyes glowed for a moment as she examined Henderson. “A few internal wounds. Nothing life threatening. Also, you should know I can’t see anything to do with your mind. So anything going wrong there I can’t help you unless you have a way to reveal it to me.”
“Oh, right.” Henderson muttered and closed her eyes to focus. Her mind was no longer shielded by a silver light and Gloria could see it fully. “Am I the last one?”
Gloria shrugged, “You were the only person on record to go to the Apprentice floor. Which leaves four people who are missing. Two guards, who are assumed to be dead when we got split up on the first floor as their names are no longer on the leaderboard. Another person who went in, solo we assume, and hasn’t returned yet, but is still on the leaderboard. And lastly, Mathew.”
“That bastard didn’t get out yet?” Henderson complained. “I just saw him! Why didn’t he get out with the rest of us?”
“Rest of you? What happened?” Gloria asked, as a pale green light surrounded Henderson.
“It’s a long story. To put it simply, it was an eye opening experience to how weak we still are. It took nearly forty Apprentice Ranked people to take down the Floor Boss. Nobody can do that alone.”
Gloria didn’t say anything. She just fixed up Henderson in silence. “You think he can get out?” she finally asked.
Henderson huffed. “If I were to place a bet, I would put all my money on him not only making it out alive, but somehow gaining a large amount of rewards on top of it. You remembered when we found him limping out of that Infernal Wolf den don’t you?”
“I sure do. Back before we even had a single idea of what was really going on. To think that was months ago.”
“Longer for us inside the Dungeon.” Henderson reminded her. “He’s growing so strong. I worry that he is focusing too much on surviving and not enough on everything else. We are still people.”
Gloria nodded empathetically. “ We all care about him. He’s strong, smart, and level headed. Sure could use some lessons on his public relations skills and being more empathetic to others, but he’s the best we have. Maybe you could be a good friend and help him out.”
Both women looked at each other before laughing. Henderson rolled his eyes, “Yea, sure. That’ll happen.”
“Hmmmm. Did you see him there?” Gloria asked.
Henderson nodded, “Yea. He’s alive. So is Leo actually.”
“Leo was there? That’s amazing you met them both. What are the odds of that?”
“Apparently high enough.” Henderson glanced toward the exit portal. The swirling rainbow of colors hoving just off the ground. “He better come out alive, or so help me, I'm going to learn necromancy to bring him back to life and kill him myself.”
Gloria didn’t say anything. Choosing to remain silent, but the look on her face revealed something unintentional.
“What, don’t tell me one of you is learning necromancy to do that, are you?” Henderson asked.
“No, nothing like that. It’s…complicated. Just don’t make jokes like that. Some people are still sensitive about the undead we had to clear out recently.”
“Fine. Sure.” Henderson said, dropping it. She was cleared medically, and started to leave so she could sleep in her own bed for as long as she could.
A short bearded man rolled up in a modified golf car before she could leave the area. “Captain Henderson! I came as soon as I heard you came out.” Mr. Melton almost shouted in joy.
Henderson smiled seeing the man. “Glad to see you too. How has everything been since we left?”
Mr. Melton dabbed at his bald head, sweat covering it. “Horrible. Once all our strongest leaders left, things were hard to keep together. Two weeks ago, we made contact with another nearby safe zone. Apparently they assumed we would be joining under their rule. I tried to just open simple trade and conversation. Keep things friendly until you and Mathew came back. But…last week they started to cause problems.”
“What kind of problems?” Henderson asked, getting up and starting to put her armor back on.
“They are aiming to take Mathew’s claim over this place. To take it from him and all of us! They havn’t moved for the Hearth Crystal, but they are talking about it publicly.”
Henderson groaned. “Then we knock some sense into him. If he wants a fight, a fight he will get.”
Mr. Melton put his hands up to stop her. “No, that’s the thing. He isn’t fighting physically. He is doing speeches. Using our laws against us. We allow people to voice their grievances, and we can’t stop him from the laws Mathew has in place. We can’t stop him at all. He is driving a wedge in our community.”
Mr. Melton guided Hendrson away from people and talked to her in a hushed whisper. “We are still at wit’s end since the whole undead stuff. People aren’t fighting or publicly yelling at each other, but it’s still kind of grated. There are people who still do not like magic. Some people refuse to help Blue Oaks. Others complain about getting paid or living conditions. It’s all expected, but all with the added stress of our new reality. He is using all of this against us.”
“What’s his name?”
“No clue, just calling himself a messenger of his God. A voice to be heard. Based on the symbols worn on his body, he is a follower of someone called Varlin. I bought an information package from Di. The short version is that Varlin is the God of the Iron Heart. His followers are typically crafters and people who replace their body with mechanical body parts. A technomancer.”
Henderson cursed. Their best public speaker would be Mathew. Leo would be great as well, but both of them are gone. “What about the others who stayed behind? What about yourself?”
“I’ve tried my best, but it’s not working. He is winning this public opinion with those who are against magic. If this keeps up, we might have a riot.”