They had stayed in that new city for almost two days and when they were ready to leave. Lance had offered them to join the beast fang guild, but Jazmel had to decline. He hadn’t planned to leave the black wing faction and seeing powerful tiers that were above him just motivated him to do his best too.
He restocked on all potions while in the city, spending a pretty penny or coin as was the currency. He had to part with the frost shards, they weren’t uncommon, but he had gotten used to having some in his storage ring, but he could always find or buy more.
The gate was filled with seekers and rankers moving on, they had to queue again. this was a normal gate; one that was just a large doorway where everyone simply walked through. No toll and simply put; they would be transported to their next gate. He wondered how that actually worked but in truth, he was simply happy to let the labyrinth decide on their next steps itself. it would be of no benefit for him to pick the next journeys he would move forward with. But instead he would simply grow as the labyrinth dictated and he would continue to do the extra trials and gates that he stumbled upon.
He had surmised that he was quite strong for his tier, his stats told him he was reaching heights that usually rankers did not reach so early. But he had dedicated his progress through the labyrinth to keeping a balanced stat sheet and even now he was doing his best and pushing towards all of his stats reaching 100.
It was there turn, Jazmel and Sadé entered the gate and stepped right into wetlands. A swamp.
“I hate swamps!” Sadé shuddered and she raised her boot to try and stay dry in the marshy waters, but it was already too late. To make matters worse, it had begun to rain also.
“I can see why you hate it.” he said, laughing a little. The swamp was quiet, great old trees grew in mangled postures that scaled high above them both, their leaves blocking out true light but enough seeped through so that they didn’t need light from lanterns or fire.
DING!
YOU HAVE ENTERED YOUR THIRTIETH FLOOR!
CONGRATULATIONS!
+2 END
+1 STR
+1 PER
…
YOUR PERCEPTION HAS REACHED 100!
…
WHILE ONLY A RANKER TIER I!
CONGRATULATIONS
…
EXP ACCRUED!
…
YOUR EYES OF THE DIVINE HAVE BEEN ADJUSTED!
YOU WILL NOW SEE THE MANA OF ALL THINGS!
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
…
The notification hit him quickly and his brain twinged with slight pain as his eyes changed again, he blinked and squeezed his eyes shut as they changed and Sadé worried over him, touching his back, and showing her concern.
“Are you ok?” she said, and he grunted but righted himself.
“I just got a reward for us hitting our thirtieth floor, my eyes were upgraded.” He explained and he looked at her and she gasped.
“What?” he said, concerned at her gasp.
“They are no longer brown; they are ghost blue. It looks like lightning in your eyes.” She told him and he winced but had nothing to look at. The water around them was too murky. That being said, he could see all the Mana surrounding them; even the ambient Mana in the air; it was free flowing and looked like particles, but he could see it all. It was a lot of information, but the pain had dulled and ebbed away.
“I got the same notification; the system granted me more stats.” She said a little stunned and then he explained that he had hit 100 on his perception stat.
“You have 100 in one of your stats?!” she yelled, and he looked around to make sure they were truly alone.
“I have been working hard remember!” he told her, and she laughed, then giggled then crouched over holding her stomach from laughter.” He watched her confused but with a smile to see her laughing so hard.
“You don’t understand, people barely hit 100 stats until they are peak ranker tier. So are you telling me you were in the 90s before we even left seeker tier?” she said and he nodded, confused.
“You don’t realise how strong you are, honestly it wouldn’t make sense to me. But I watch you when we are in battle or a fight and the way you are strong enough to fight tier III creatures now. I am not sure how you do it, but the system is building you into something incredible.” She giggled and he smiled a little more.
“Well you have something like 5000 plus Mana because of your tails. If your stamina keeps up, you are much stronger than me.” He countered and she shrugged.
“I am not jealous, well maybe a little envious. But I am realising that by just being near you, incredible things are bound to happen to me too. Look at the gorgon’s in the fountain we faced. We beat three tier III creatures, by ourselves.” She informed him and he nodded, but he had just assumed that as a ranker now he was on fair footing with the monsters and creatures that the system threw at them.
Just as he was about to speak again, Paldane leapt from his ring and soared up and landed on his head.
“We weren’t technically alone; it was four against three.” He said and she nodded, and her fox yipped and jumped out of her ring, it landed in the cold marsh water and yelped. Leaping back into her ring, they laughed at that, and she beckoned for him to lead the way.
He did and slogging through the marsh he entered deeper into the swamp. They broke through the outer layers, and he could tell because the tall trees grew older and more gnarled in their growth. In some parts they had become a mangrove of darkness almost. The water was so deep in places; that the fish that swam were almost sightless, he only noticed them because he saw Mana fluctuating and moving erratically, and it made him peer deeper into the waters. he caught Sadé when she almost stepped into deeper waters and the fish lulled awaiting victims of such a mistake.
“step where I stepped.” He motioned and she nodded, following him.
They walked further in and his tried to create a safe path to move through Sadé poked him in the back and motioned for him to look up ahead. He did, following where she pointed, and a grin crept onto his face.
In one of the larger trees which was so large that half its body was submerged and only the bough and the brush of its leaves were still above the water depth. Stray twisted branches made walkways and someone nimble and surefooted could move across them and one such person was standing watching them from one of these branches, it was Katie, and she was smiling kindly.
“Well look who it is!” she said and with a smile she flung out one of her chains and used it pull Sadé up. They then both use the same chain to pull Jazmel up; who was quite a bit heavier than them both.
“what are you doing here?” Jazmel asked.
“Sorry leader, we haven’t returned to the outpost yet. This is the third floor we have been on and have been trying to find the exit.” She saluted playfully and he waved away her nonsense.
“Who are you with?” he asked, and she smiled.
“Well, the funny thing about that, is I am not the only one who ended up here too. Me and the pup stumbled into here and we found Gil and Patton too.” She said and Jazmel nodded, finding joy in the party being back together. Gil was a welcome addition too.
“Come, I will bring you to where we are.” She said and then turned to walk back across the length of the branch.
“Your eyes have changed, not sure if you noticed.” She said and he told her he had.