CHAPTER 187

With a sigh, he opened his eyes. His purchases should have filled him with excitement, but being forced into the underground had rattled him. It felt like his decisions had been driven by circumstances, rather than him having the time to make good decisions.

The rest of the party had reorganised. Sven stood guard at the exit that Jingyi and Everlyn had left through, while everyone else was relaxing. They had placed down the standard camp equipment for additional protection and stealth reasons. They were encased in a shield of silence, which was allowing a couple of quiet conversations to occur. Keikain chatting with Clare on one side of the room and Thor, Toni and Rahmat playing a game of dice on the other. Then Michael and Harry were resting against the cave wall next to the dice players even if they weren’t involved in the game.

The split between the two groups remained as strong as ever.

Tom theatrically rolled his shoulders and let out a huge sigh.

Heads snapped around to check up on him.

He gave a small wave to the dice players and triggered his new ability.

The skill wrapped around him, and he felt it push him up and to the side. Not far, only five centimetres, but with his eyes open he captured the shift in perspective. Then the cave floor was no longer under his feet. It was expected, but his stomach still lurched as he dropped. It was only half a centimetre, and it was enough to relax the ankles, spread his toes and brace for the landing.

The whole thing went smoothly.

It still felt awkward. The sensation of shifting from one spot to another rattled him. He wasn’t used to that disorientation that went with it, particularly what his sense of balance and touch was conveying. From being firmly on the ground to then falling.

He kicked the dust that covered the stone floor to let out some of his internal frustration. Maybe he should have waited till he could afford one that he knew would work. He had recognised the drawbacks of this one but gone ahead with it, anyway.

There was a slow clapping sound. He looked up to see that it was Keikain. “Congratulations. That is interesting.”

Tom frowned and scrunched up his face. “No. It’s far from perfect. I think it’s intended for people who fly or float.” Tom could easily imagine a flying sapient making devastating use of this ability. The problem for him was his balance and his connection to the ground. It was the shift from being supported to falling that was causing the problems. That was not an issue someone who could fly would have.

“Flying? That’s not something your legend suggests you’ve mastered.” Michael pointed out with a smile.

“No, it’s not.” Tom focused and teleported to the side. One foot was on the floor the other suspended over a depression. He almost tripped as gravity took over and his brain screamed that something wrong had happened. Acrobatics kicked in, and he was able to bend his toes down to avoid tipping to the side and toppling.

It was not a smooth recovery despite the fact had been deliberately testing that scenario. It was as bad as he had thought. Extensive practise would improve things, but the ability as it was would never be seamless.

Everyone, excluding Sven, was watching him in fascination.

Rahmat leapt to his feet with his spear in his hands. “How long between casts?”

“Three seconds.”

The other man smiled and then the weapon in Rahmat’s hand was suddenly thrusting for his centre of mass.

There had been no warning: Rahmat had struck without hesitation.

The other man was not going for the kill because Power Strike was not infusing his weapon. There was no telltale glow in the attack. Tom twisted and spun to the side with the speeding effect of black dodge kicking in.

He could let the spear land like Fate Weaponised Black Dodge demanded, or….

He used his new muscle, teleporting to the left and slightly up. His perspective changed instantly, and he found himself in the air a good two centimetres. The release of fate around him confirmed that Rahmat, despite it being training had been actively trying to hurt him.

But there was no follow up strike and Tom landed smoothly on the ground. The small drop making it trivial to adjust his stance and prevent any stumbles.

Rahmat nodded approvingly. “Again.”

The spear flashed forward, and even though he was faster than the other man, he was also unarmed. Tom swayed to the side, but Rahmat’s spear flickered like a snake, the second strike right at his heart. This time he teleported backwards, once more using the trick to leave himself in the air to smooth the landing.

Rahmat was a blur as he triggered some sort of skill to speed up his movements. Tom, still aloft could not kick off to dodge the surprise attack. Instinctively, his spear appeared in his hand and he parried his opponent’s weapon. The parry succeeded, but Rahmat had not been thrusting horizontal instead he had been striking upwards and Tom was driven higher into the air.

A second and third strike came at him. Tom blocked with his weapon and discovered that his higher attributes were useless when his feet weren’t on the ground. With Remote Earth Manipulation, he attempted to build a step but failed because the stone was part of the underground. Its permanency was too high for him to command it so casually.

A fourth blow slashed and Tom felt Fate Weaponised Black Dodge kick in. He twisted almost sideways in midair and the spear drew a line of blood along his forearm.

His foot hit the ground, and he pushed off. His spear snapped forward ready to counter the other man, but Rahmat had already pulled back.

A small smile appeared on his opponent’s lips. “It’s an interesting skill but exploitable if you’re careless.”

“Yes.” Tom growled and sent his spear into his storage.

Rahmat smiled. “Again.”

The spear poked and Tom dodged, unwilling to teleport and give up an advantage on the first strike. The weapon continued to probe. His dodge’s extra speed unlocked, but not the full effect. If he did nothing Rahamat would score a minor blow, a slight cut or a bit of bruising at worse.

Tom teleported.

Rahmat tried to respond, but this time his teleport kept his pivot foot grounded. When Rahmat probed him, he was easily able to dodge and then for show parried a strike with his elbow.

Fate swirled around him. Even ludicrous attempts like parrying with something other than his spear were working.

Rahmat stepped back. “Better.”

Two seconds later he launched another flurry of attacks.

Tom countered them and held the teleport back as long as possible. This time, he miscalculated and once more had to manifest his spear to protect himself against strikes that were so fast that to an untrained eye they would have been almost flickering from one spot to the other. And he had to do it all while in mid-air.

“You manifested your spear! I win.” Rahmat smiled in triumph and launched more attacks. Tom teleported too far. Residual fate, his dodge skill or maybe acrobatics let him stay ahead of his opponent’s frantic strikes.

His teleport came off cooldown and Tom used it instantly to create space and stabilise the situation.

The spearman smiled and pulled back. “We stop now. You’re tailoring your movements to my weaknesses.” The other man looked around and his eyes fell on Sven. “You need someone else to challenge you.” He then went over to Sven with a firm hand and drew him into the protected area. There was an intense conversation and then Rahmat stepped out to keep watch while Sven faced him.

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After that, every five minutes they would switch to keep the pressure up and stop Tom from learning their patterns as easily.

It was a strange form of sparing. When his teleport was on a cooldown and he wasn’t unbalanced, they would pause the combat.

Then his opponent would unleash an explosive attack immediately after.

“Eat something, then move in five.” Everlyn ordered abruptly over their communication link and interrupted their training.

Tom immediately stepped backwards and raised his hands to show that the practice was over.

Sven grinned happily. “That was fun.”

“Thanks guys. It certainly helped me.”

“You’ve gotten a lot better,” Michael agreed. “Did you get any levels?”

Tom shook his head. “I’m not expecting anything for a while. It’s a tier four skill after all. But that practise really assisted in ironing out some of the kinks.”

“There’s still much for you to do.” Rahmat told him. “Currently you have it pigeonholed as a get out of jail dodge.” The spearman shook his head. “It has far more potential than that… you need to learn how to apply it offensively.”

“Yes, I definitely do. It’s too powerful to neglect.”

He ate the strip of spiced meat that Toni passed him as they waited to head down into the underground proper. It was chewy, moist with a pleasant after burn.

Anxious glances were shot towards the exit. The arrogance and ridiculousness of what they were planning was not lost on any of them. Time was up and Everlyn had left the communication range of her ability immediately. She had clearly doubled back with the explicit intention to get them moving and didn’t have time for longer explanations. She would, Tom knew, shadow whatever monster they were following to make sure it did not turn back. The camp stones were gathered up, and they went down the tunnel.

After the first turn, it felt like they were getting closer to the underground proper. The glowing moss gave way to crystals and everything to Tom with his Low Light skill was as clear as day as opposed to the slight gloom that had been persistent in the room above.

“We’re deep.” Michael whispered after another turn. He pointed at the crystals, which were rapidly becoming more prominent.

“Of course,” Toni answered dryly. “We’ve descended kilometres.”

Tom shook his head at the healer. “Yes, we have, and we are deep. But you can’t tell from that.” He waved at the ceiling. “I’ve been kilometres underground and had moss be the only source of illumination and then right at the peripherals have found powerful crystal lighting like here.”

“Agreed,” Keikain stated effectively ending the argument.

They continued down the tunnel with Tom leading. About thirty metres in, it was like a switch was flicked. Everyone moved as silently as they could. The relatively wide tunnel narrowed and in the end he was squeezing through a tight gap and moving towards a brightly lit exit.

He reached the end and found the exit was ten metres up from the floor in an otherwise sheer cliff.

Tom looked out at the place he had entered.

This is the real underground. He thought to himself.

This was what he expected and as always it was inspiring. To call the space they had emerged into a tunnel or a cave did not do it justice. It was like the grand canyon with a roof. When he squinted up, five hundred metres above him, massive crystals decorated the ceiling, throwing off sufficient light, that you couldn’t look at them directly. The far wall, even with the aid of Throw Rock was outside his range. It was maybe four hundred metres away. He looked left and right and could see over a kilometre in both directions and he was only limited because of the slight curve the canyon had. The width of the canyon increased in the distance. Practically, they had emerged in a narrow section.

Tom shook his head at that thought. This was not something that someone from Earth before the tutorial could even have imagined.

The reason Everlyn had been so confident of being able to stay ahead of the travelling threats was clear. The lines of sight you had were impressive. If a threat came up from behind, they would probably spot it early enough to find a place to hide.

“What’s happening?” Keikain whispered impatiently.

“There’s a drop.” he answered.

He forced his eyes away from the sheer majesty of the view and focused on the local conditions. There was a variety of flora nearby. Mostly, it was a form of fungus or moss. The rock of the underground was a deterrent to many surface plants. Their roots just couldn’t get purchase even if the light from the crystals supported photosynthesis. There was actually evidence of that below him. There were trees growing out of the remains of the occasional piles of jumbled rock. Mounds that sort of looked like. Tom stared upwards and now that he was looking for them, he could see the stalactites on the roof. Most of them were less than thirty metres long and some giant ones were over a hundred.

Tom studied the small hills with a newfound understanding. They were artificial in a way as they had been created by stalactite falling from above and then shattering, which gave the trees an opportunity to grow. Somewhere for their roots to gain purchase. Given that every one of the artificial hills that he could see was covered with thick growth they fell irregularly or potentially everything was a result of an aerial battle in the distant past.

Tom focused on the immediate area. As far as he could tell, there were no monsters waiting for them. Everlyn had left a rope for them to get down, but he ignored it. If there were dangerous camouflaged monsters in this space, it would be best to find out straight away.

“I’m going in loud.” He jumped and triggered his tier three pants to increase his effective weight.

Crack.

The stone under his feet broke slightly.

His spear was in his hand, and his eyes looked around, expecting to be attacked. He could hear curses and the sounds of the others abseiling down the rope behind him.

There was a flicker of movement.

He tensed.

Then another to the right. This time, he caught sight of a monkey face connected to a multi-legged body. He flexed identification, and that glimpse was sufficient to pin the rank of the monster at eighteen. That was something they could fight.

There were more streaks of charging bodies. He was facing a small pack of the monsters and he sort of wished Everlyn was handy to do an identification and identify vulnerabilities, but he guessed he could find out the old-fashioned way.

He was already three metres clear of the wall courtesy of the initial jump, and he moved forward another two paces.

Some monsters hesitated, others sped up, Tom internally grimaced. They were coordinating. Their rhythms matched, and it was clear they were going to attack him simultaneously. Tom waited a moment for them to close, and then they were in range.

Lightning Enrage.

The sparks exploded from his body even as he dodged to the side. Part of him hoped that the bright lights would distract them, but it was clear that hope was in vain. The slowing aspect of black dodge immediately triggered.

Tom frowned. He had calculated that he could avoid damage in the initial charge. Apparently, the tyranny of the attribute difference meant that would not be the case. The signs of time dilation and the nature of his dodge skill made that pretty clear.

They flew past him on his right. A single one of them was closer than the others. Two paws were out, trying to rip him to bits.

His stomach burned.

There was sharp surface pain followed by a deep, dull throb. Then his momentum had him rolling away and clear, but he left a spray of blood behind him. Those claws had gone through him like his skin was butter.

He righted himself. Touch Heal flared and sucked away a staggering twenty mana. He would hate to have seen what the cost would have been if his dodge skill hadn’t reduced the damage.

The six monsters were already adjusting, having pulled to a stop just in front of the others. Tom knew without his taunting skills one or more would have kept going to attack the weaker people, but Lightning Enrage ensured they were only focused on him. Once more they came as a wave towards him, that strange coordination effectively meaning the fastest waited for the slowest. The monkey faces now they were screeching and showing off their sharp teeth were no longer quite as cute as they had been originally. There was something about lots of jagged teeth that stripped away any lingering cuteness factor.

Once more he threw himself to the side and felt Black Dodge trigger. Tom cursed mentally and triggered his teleport.

Briefly he was in the air, exposed. Most were past him, but some had slowed at the last moment. They were still a threat particularly if he couldn’t manoeuvre.

He stabbed with his spear, catching one of them under the chin. It was moving too fast for him to land a clean blow, at least not this early in their contest, but the spear got a purchase on the bone under the creature’s jaw, which was what he had actually been aiming for.

Tom wrenched with his full strength. Equal and opposite reaction. He sped up midair. His feet hit the ground, and he was rolling away to avoid more attacks.

Time slowed.

There was a flair of pain on his shoulder. His knee knocked into another one of the creatures knocking it sideways, and his spear smacked into teeth that were flashing for his neck.

He was up and spinning, ducking. A kick stopped his spin hard, and he rolled backward.

Time hadn’t frozen, but was being slowed down. These things were activating his skill continuously.

To escape the coming attack, he triggered another teleport midway through the back roll. It pushed him straight up. By the time he landed, he had adjusted perfectly once more. He thrust forward with the spear and time was no longer slowing at all.

He caught it on the ribs, and there was some minor damage. Dark purple blood dripped.

The six monkeys were still leaping at him, but he could see the pattern they were using. That meant they were easy to avoid. He needed to wait till they were airborne before making an abrupt lateral movement. That would put him clear of their claws and buy time for his teleport to come off the cool down.

It stopped being an all-out brawl and descended into a dance. One that he was easily able to manage. The others were down and contributing to the fight from the outside.

His taunt skill kept them focusing ravenously upon him. They wanted to tear out his throat.

Another jump left, but because of a slight miscalculation he needed to teleport.

It wasn’t a problem.

They came at him.

One that Sven hit spun to strike back.

Lightning Enrage triggered a spark, striking the monster, and it switched the focus back to Tom.

Another dodge. When he came out of it, one of the monsters was airborne and completely exposed.

He thrust upward with his spear glowing blue. He punched straight through the base of the throat and into the brain. A professional twist ensured the point did maximum damage before he tugged it out and then retreated with five pursuing him.

More dance moves, more well timed thrusts. An abrupt growth of rock had a spike go through the eye of the fourth. The fifth got ravaged by an invisible attack, presumably some sort of wind blade from Toni and then the last avoided Tom’s striking spear but ran under a descending blow of Thor’s hammer.

Tom immediately spun to face the wider underground to make sure nothing was coming to investigate the noise of their fight. “Anyone injured?”

“No, we’re fine.” Michael grumbled. “Was that totally necessary?”

Tom smiled innocently. “Yes. We now know we can match the basic environmental threats.”

“No one cares about those,” Clare reminded him. “They’re not what anyone fears about being in the underground.”