“He..hey, Ebony.” The grey-robed figure was hunched and as short as Ebony recalled.
“Tuffock…so, have you been doing well?” Ebony asked the natural question to someone he hasn’t met in years.
“...HAHAHA! That’s what you have to say? I really can’t tell what’s in that head of yours.” The robed figure straightened his back and laughed.
“Hardock. You’re as loud as I remember.” It was all too easy for Ebony to recognise Tuffock 2.
“You can tell huh?” Hardock smirked.
“It’s no surprise. We’re so different.” The same voice replied. The change in tone was different enough that Ebony could identify the speaker to be Tuffock 3.
“Pettock. I guess this might as well be our first time meeting.” Ebony said to the change in speaker from the same short figure.
“Bah! Enough with the greetings. What da ya want? We were nice enough to ignore you and you came looking for us instead.” Hardock cut to the point.
“...Well, just saying hello?” Ebony honestly didn’t think much and thought they just didn’t see them building camp.
“...There's something wrong with your head isn’t there?” Hardock really didn’t know what kind of attitude to take with Ebony.
“I get that from time to time.”
“Perfect chance I guess. Won’t you join us?” Pettock changed the topic.
“After you tried to kill Scarlet?” Ebony knew it was the rifleman who took the shot but it was clear Pettock was behind it. Not to mention the last stone needle that was aimed at Scarlet which he blocked with his hand.
“Kinda thought you didn’t care with your attitude now. You’re all alive and kicking aren’t ya?” Hardock spoke his mind.
“I really want to ask though. How did you get rid of my petrification? I know you’re not dumb, you should know that I wasn’t aiming to kill her with that shot.” Pettock took over to ask the burning question he had.
“Just to threaten me to ‘join’ you before you remove the petrification on her,” Ebony said to no one in particular. It didn’t change that the rifleman would have killed her from the get-go. Now that he thought about it, why did he walk up to them?
“If you’re not going to say anything then get lost, we’re not interested in looking for trouble with you now.” Pettock rested against the tree. It was probably tiring to explore the place alone with no one to watch their back.
“Tuffock, what’s your goal?”
“...lo..long story,” Tuffock replied after a long time.
“In a word, revenge.” Hardock summarised.
“Just a little more complicated,” Pettock added.
“I see, then I’m not interested. Attack them again and our next meeting wouldn’t be so peaceful. Well, Hector aside, Scarlet’s definitely itching to return the favour. See you soon.” Ebony disappeared from the spot with a single step back where he came from. There was no point hiding since Tuffock already saw where they made camp.
❅❅❅
“Peaceful my ass! That eller!” Hardock spat.
“He..his mana is even crazier than it was before.” Tuffock stated.
“To compress and push all his overflowing mana onto us together with gravity magic along with sonic suggestions. He could’ve popped our eyeballs if he vibrated the mana he surrounded us with, stone skin wouldn’t help much there. To think we got threatened by a Journeyman. Seems like we should work on mana skin and our magic body to protect ourselves from magical attacks.” Pettock mocked with a scoff.
“I…I don’t think th…that was what he was doing.” Tuffock gave his opinion.
“Don’t beat around the bush!” Hardock preferred when people just got straight to the point.
“I think h..he did it subconsciously.” Hardock did not like this reply from the soft spoken one since it didn’t tell him much but Pettock spoke up before he could yell again.
“Ho, you’re saying he’s at the stage where his mana and magic react to his emotions and will without any mental input?” The robed figure put his hand under his chin in contemplation.
“...You’re joking?” Hardock quietened down in shock.
“I wouldn’t put it past him. A combat classed Meditator. Sounds plausible, and really, more and more tempting to get on our little quest.” Pettock logically thought there was a high chance that was true.
“Shou…should’ve been friendly to them all along.” Tuffock cut in.
“GAH! Enough with the ‘I told you so’ attitude. Who was it that thought that the Xeng and noble were going to be a problem? Huh?!” Hardock screamed at them both. He was easily irritable compared to the other two.
No one replied him since they all thought so before.
❅❅❅
“That was fast. I guess it really is an open icy plain.” Mark, who was on the watch, asked.
“Mmm.”
No one had any complaints about moving out earlier and going at a brisker pace, Mark was getting more involved in fights even without using his huge runic circle on the ground. Letting all of them conserve the energy and mana for travel and battle. Since there weren’t even many Kobolds around they laxed on caution.
They were not as lucky this time. Climbing up to the 19th floor was through the staircase that brought them to the corners of the floor. They just chose to walk away from the walls, bringing them to the centre where Panic Attack and the twin spiral stairs were. If dungeon ‘towers’ were the same shape throughout the floors, they would’ve arrived near the centre of the 20th floor as well.
That was assuming the twin spiral stairs they took were the only ones and also if that really was the centre of the floor. Since there weren’t any walls when they reached the 20th floor and were surrounded instead, it was clear they just picked a random direction to move in.
As experienced as Mark was on the field, the icy plains disorientated him after long enough. They didn’t have a clear clue as to where to go either.
“It’s been 4 days already…do you even remember the way back? There are no landmarks.” Hector shivered as the heated papers he stuck underneath his armour ran out of juice.
“Mmm. All the ice protrusions and trees we passed by are landmarks.” Ebony assured them. Mental Map just copied everything he sees into one large 3D map. It probably helped that his memory improved with the increase in Wisdom.
“How much of the floor have we explored?” Mallory asked.
They reached the walls of the 20th floor and travelled along it till Ebony confirmed that they had gone one full round without finding the way up. The walls were where the Kobolds built their homes or where their spawning nodes were as well. They would jump them or throw javelins from large protrusions of ice above them. Their numbers were a little higher as well.
All of them have gotten some nice skill levels that they increase the limit for. Only Scarlet got the level 200 or tenth increase in Natural Potential since most of the Kobolds were only level 190 to 199. They weren’t lucky enough to encounter another 3 level 200 Kobolds.
“More than half.” Ebony estimated. Most of the time was exploring the walls before they started moving back towards the centre to look for a way up. It confirmed that practically every floor was circular so far so calling it a dungeon tower seems accurate enough. Well, not every floor.
“Ugh, I don’t see any obvious stairs, mountains, caves, waterfalls or floating platforms. Wanna bet that it’s going to be some stairs again?” Hector said.
“Okay, I bet it’s going to be floating platforms.”
“Alright! The wager’s half of tonight’s dinner. What about you guys?”
No one else bothered playing along.
“Are you really that dumb?” Mark couldn’t believe Hector actually made the bet.
“Why are you calling me dumb?!”
They didn’t even need to travel for another 5 minutes before Hector shouted and exclaimed “You cheater!” because there were hundreds of shaky ice platforms in his sight together with a pillar of light that was a little brighter than the surroundings. Thousands upon thousands to be accurate. They were spread out with some being larger and some smaller. Ebony already noticed and took the bet as a joke, it just proved to him that his eyesight was much better than Hector’s and that Hector wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed despite how knowledgeable he was.
It was still early afternoon so they started scaling it the moment they reached the place.
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“Oh shit!” Hector slipped off the first platform he hoped onto.
A few tries were enough for them to find out that the platforms were extremely unstable and would tilt to wherever weight was placed on unless they were stepping on the centre. They couldn’t be bothered to jump around the unstable platforms so they flew again. It was really convenient and the practice was making Ebony better and better.
It was brighter on the 21st floor, probably because it wasn’t snowing and there weren't any clouds. The only difference in the environment was that it was an actual forest covered in ice rather than just an icy plain. They were not ambushed the moment they got up here either.
Mark’s luggage has been getting bigger since he collected the neck furs of the Prime Verglass Kobolds. The fur was tough enough to defend itself from Scarlet and Ebony’s attacks, they were surely valuable. It was easier and lighter to transport around than the Kobold’s weapons too. Cut and cold-resistant, they are definitely hot sellers to make equipment for people travelling to the 19th floor and above.
“At least there’s some greenery here. It’s a little colder though, even without snow.” Hector commented.
“More places for the Kobolds to take cover.” Ebony replied realistically.
Mark nodded like a proud parent.
The few levels they got in their skills were hardly enough and they weren't really able to safely handle a fight with the Prime Verglas Kobolds one on one.
They were in the middle of the forest when they flew up the huge hole, the trees were hundreds of metres tall and thicker than any of their heights. Mark did not like the looks of that, It was too useful for hiding behind. He stabbed a random tree to find that he could hardly stab his spear tip in, the frost on the tree bark seemed to be what made them so tough.
Mark was contemplating on the pros and cons of hardy environmental objects. The good thing is that they would provide good cover but the bad was that it would similarly provide good cover for their opponents. With his party’s skills and spells taken into account he believed it was more beneficial to them than it was to the Kobolds.
They didn’t fully rely on long or even mid-range spells while the Kobolds have the javelins. The trees were sparse enough that it would not hinder Ebony’s greatsword but that might be in consideration for the greatsword-wielding Kobold as well.
There was a low chance the forest would burn from his or Scaret’s fire magic with the thick protection of ice, the leafy parts were high above them anyway so they did not have to worry about slinging fire around. Hector’s punching power would be limited to take down what was in front of him but there was no need to worry if the number of Kobolds were small.
With Mark’s Identify, they singled out level 200 Prime Verglas Kobolds for Ebony and Hector to struggle against. The others would be held down by three who wouldn't get as much out of the Natural Potential it would give them. Mallory never seemed very interested but that might be because she doesn’t think she could take on a Kobold by herself.
Mark was forced to set his runic domain up once more when they had more than a few Javelin tossers on them. They were sticking to trees like monkeys even with branches with the help of ice magic.
Ebony would take on the Kobolds with frozen fists or gauntlets whereas Hector would fight with the greatsword-wielding ones. The skinniest twin longsword one was left to Scarlet since only she and Mark could safely keep up. Ebony already took a cut that screeched against his robes by a sneak attack. Although he had really fast movement speed he was unable to dodge it as he was pressured by the punching Kobold, he would have risked taking a direct hit if he dodge the attack from the fast Kobold.
The Prime Verglas Kobolds were even copying the tag team tactics that they used. It was fortunate the Kobold's ability with magic was nowhere near as good as the real ones and they were limited in many aspects.
‘I should really get a teacher for using the greatsword.’ Was what Ebony thought time and time again the past few days. No doubt, he was worse than a Kobold at using it. It wasn’t the skill level, he was just fundamentally not that great at facing another user of the greatsword. It was good enough for hunting mindless monsters and he had his footwork and magic to rely on against other warriors and swordsmen but if he were to take that away, he was barely decent with it. The Kobolds could counter both his movement speed and his magic pretty well. They were good training partners.
“Damn,” Hector had his hands on his knees as he panted hard. “My quadra-enhanced punches don’t do much…they’re tough.”
“There’s more of the javelin ones, it could get messy if they put more of those on our tail.” Mark checked his equipments’ runes and how much mana they have left. It was fortunate that the frost on them was melted off by his high body temperature so his runes were not affected in any way.
Ebony also noticed that ice mana entered their lungs but each of them handled them with their own methods. Ice mana in his body was easily redirected or removed while the 3 who could use fire or had high body temperature just ignored it since ice mana doesn’t even enter their body. Ebony couldn’t tell how Mallory removed it but he doesn’t sense ice mana after she breathes them in.
It might be troublesome if they threw more of those ice mist explosion javelins. If they aimed well, the shard explosion could injure them gravely as well. Ebony’s robes were really good against them and Hector was pretty damn tough as long as he was enhanced.
“Let’s take a short break.” Mark decided on the tree to his left to rest against. Even Scarlet was out of breath and Mallory had beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, she had to protect the clumsy Hector from multiple long-ranged attacks. Ebony was practically out of mana as well, he wouldn’t stand a chance against the monsters here without his mana pool being full and compressed.
Ebony saw dents and scratches on Hector’s armour but after checking it out multiple times it was not something he could repair. Mallory indirectly confirmed that she was wearing some kind of armour as well, they just couldn’t see it. It wasn’t just sight either since he couldn’t sense her wearing anything extra other than her clothing.
‘Probably some kind of barrier armour, Hector should be wearing one too then.’ Ebony wouldn’t know that he guessed right.
Ebony was attempting to guide their meditation when he slapped Hector out of it and snapped the other out by calling out. Scarlet is too impatient and can’t sit still and is always filled with distractions whenever he tries to get her to relax.
“Kobolds aren’t the only things here.”
“Any idea what our new opponent is like?”
“Using trees as cover, a Kobold is riding it. A big one.”
Ebony only felt the vibrations from the ground rather than using sight. How he knew the kobolds were riding something was just gut feeling. Going without sight for more than a year was helpful in that sense. It was actually pretty easy to not just hear but feel the weight of an incoming body, their pace and even their speed just through the vibrations from the ground.
“Mark.” Ebony warned their most well-to-do member to get ready.
They could easily see the huge boar with a muscular [Chief Verglas Kobold Lvl ???] more than 2.5 metres tall. The boar itself was really similar to the Hoarfrost Boars in the Glades, just rounder and it was at least 2 metres tall and long, the big belly wrapped around by the Kobold’s thick legs. The Kobold had more horns and seemed spikier than the regular lizard-like Kobolds.
It carried two swords larger than Ebony’s yet they looked like normal one-handed swords in its hands. It licked its mouth and sharp teeth before roaring in glee at the sight of prey. Ebony already protected the party’s ears by soundproofing a thin layer of his mana that he spread out in a dome. The roar was stronger than he thought as there was a pulse of mana directed right through the front, breaking his thin layer of mana and slapping right into the dome.
Ebony reacted fast enough and he already had Layered Ice Carapaces lying around them to react to attacks from different directions. He had 6 full-powered ones at any time nowadays. The blast of vibrating mana didn’t do any damage to his shield but it annoyed the ears of his party when it burst apart after impact.
“Its almost the size of an ogre!”
The Kobold held both its swords in a cross in front of itself, the boar looked up at the blades and breathed out fire. Both blades coated in flames, the Kobold pulled them back.
[Fiery bellied Hog Lvl 170]
“Get the pig!” Mark shouted.
It was surprising that there was such a low level monster here. Ebony wondered if Ordina changed its tactics to a mix of both quality and quantity.
‘Hot damn. That stance. Is it using Scarlet’s sword style with those greatswords?’
They entered Ebony’s range of senses quickly and then into Mark’s runic circle soon enough. The boar leapt to the side the moment it stepped into Mark’s runic circle, dodging the expected spear from the ground. Mark also expected it to dodge and summoned another spear where it dodged but the giant Kobold didn’t even spare a look at the spear and swung his right hand at it, snapping the spear that popped out.
Unsure if it was a secret but since they were all close together, Ebony heard a cracking sound from Mark the moment the summoned spear was broken. If his Perception was any higher he would’ve been able to sense the thin scratch on Mark’s actual spear.
The barrage of fire arrows met a fire breath from the Hog before the muscular Kobold swept the flames away with a single swing. It was surprising to see a red glint right after blowing the flames away with wind pressure.
Scarlet took the first charge as usual.
None of them expected the Kobold to drop one of its swords and grab both of Scarlet’s wrists in that short time, it breathed in with a smile and roared again.
Scarlet couldn’t break free from its crushing grip and since she leapt for an attack she was caught in mid-air. Ebony’s shields wouldn’t make it in time, all she could do was bring her halo down into a blood disk and conjure flames around her feet as she kicked out in retaliation. The vice grip gave her the ability to wrench her lower body up.
The Kobold’s mana blast burst the blood disk apart but it reflexively tilted its head back to dodge the kick, the flames that came after burned its upper body and its neck fur was on fire. It freed Scarlet up but she knelt down, dizzy just from the ‘glancing’ sonic mana roar.
Her party members were right on time to back her up. The Kobold patted its fur with ice magic when Hector, who got behind it in that time punched out. It had some reflex to be able to bring its remaining blade to block with its flat side but the force behind the punch knocked it right off the Hog.
The Hog tried to move but its feet were frozen to the ground before it noticed and its head rammed into something invisible stopped it before 4 spears impaled it, the flames burst out from its belly but it was contained in a box, roasting itself alive. It was considerably weak without its rider.
Ebony didn’t see how the Kobold managed to get the other sword back in hand. Probably when it got blasted off the Hog.
Scarlet got back up before Ebony or Mallory could check on her.
They underestimated the giant Kobold, it didn’t need to rely on its mount or other tricks. Although the flames on his swords were extinguished before the greater fire mages, it easily handled both Scarlet and Ebony with its technique and physical stats. Ebony wasn’t knocked back as much but Scarlet’s arms were shaking from the constant heavy impacts.
It was basically spamming its roar to keep Hector and Mark busy while it seemed to know when a spear was aimed at him. The fire arrow barrage was met with an ice roar blast after the Hog couldn’t help it anymore. Mark never got into closer combat because he knew he would mess up the three Journeymen that were more in sync, he was never a combat genius anyhow.
Mallory managed to shut the Kobold’s mouth with her invisible barriers as it had a poor perception for mana, a sharp barrier would pierce into its mouth when it opened it. It felt its throat in pain and bit down hard to crush the first, now it was wary of opening its mouth too much.
The situation wasn’t as good as it looked despite the five of them pushing the Kobold into a tight corner. Ebony was forced to become support like Mark because he was fresh out of mana for enhancement and was using the mana in his shields and robes to debilitate the Kobold's movements and distract it from attacking Scarlet and Hector.
It was moments later before Hector had to back off too, they hadn’t fully recovered their mana before they got attacked.
The time they bought allowed Scarlet to enhance herself enough to push back the Kobold and land dozens of burning cuts every second. It was fortunate that Scarlet had a huge stockpile of energy and mana, she had been eating Ebony flavoured ice cream every night.
Two of Ebony’s shields managed to lock down one of its arms since it was weakened considerably, through the cuts ice mana was injected as both the shields shrank with time. Blue flames burst from all its cuts when both shields disappeared.
Scarlet finished it off, she was disappointed she didn’t manage to slice it apart into different cuts of meat since its flesh was too tough.
Mark levelled and they all gained the Natural Potential they desired.