CHAPTER 307 – FLOATING ISLANDS.
Tom coughed as a particularly dense patch of smoke got dragged into his lungs. He refused to let it distract him and Touch Heal soothed them before a cough became inevitable. The environment left after a meteorite barrage he decided was not conductive to flesh and blood.
He continued forward, almost blinded by the smoke, both from its density and the stinging tears it created. His Spark domain luckily provided him vision of his immediate surrounding. Earth Sense remained inactive. He had abandoned it to maximise his meteorite recharge time and now with his limited mana and the fact he was in the midst of a chaotic battlefield meant he couldn’t justify the cost. Luckily, the loaka did not have any way to see through the smoke, so he had the scouting advantage against them.
It was just that Earth Sense would be so useful. Tom smiled. He hadn’t realised how much he had grown to rely on it and that dependency spoke favourably for it being incorporated into a domain even if the epiphanies needed to take the final steps had evaded him to date.
His Spark domain caught the impression of five creatures sneaking up on him from behind. They were aware of him, which meant he was making too much noise. He tensed, ready to roll forward even while placing his next step more softly to start hiding his location.
The monsters sneaking up on him paused as he spied on their movements. They were coordinating and waiting for each other. Most likely they intended to all attack him at once. But… there was something off and then he realised they were all moving at different paces… most of them were hurt with the one missing two legs travelling the slowest.
The hellish conditions and their injuries aside Tom could see how their coordination was working. Another couple of seconds and they would be positioned to attack him simultaneously.
Not on his watch, he thought vindictively as he spun to face them.
They panicked like he had hoped… the furthest one, the only one that seemed to be uninjured fled immediately while the other four charged to attack but their timing was off. He slid his feet backward to create space and smiled at the way the first slightly healthy than the other had pulled ahead.
It seemed to have some sort of yellow glow over it that his abilities were not identifying as offensive, and if it was dangerous to him, they would have been. It was almost certainly defensive magic, though while the visible glow was not dangerous, he was sure the loaka had an offensive attack as well, but Tom wasn’t about to let it get close enough to check. Power Strike and Enlarge worked together to pin it to the ground. It was a loaka, weak and fragile so it took next to no effort. As he withdrew his spear, he left a mortal wound. A hole straight through the middle of it.
He retreated another step and chose his next target. A stab eliminated the next healthiest.
The last two tried to run but, it was too late for them with their injuries. The one missing its legs died first and the other one with what looked like third-degree burns covering an entire side couldn’t move fast enough to outpace a quick walk. Its choice to flee was very questionable, and a single large step brought Tom within range. He stabbed, targeting the burnt patch of skin. It broke like it lacked vitality and was paper thin. Tom hadn’t even bothered to use skills. He skewered it and then with a flick sent it flying back in the direction the last had fled.
Too easy, he thought to himself, and then he listened to the disciplined sounds of the others fighting and used the information to head off toward them. He linked up with them and now that he was safe he activated Earth Sense, which was worthwhile just for Hostile Earth though its ability to locate loaka was almost as useful for the current situation.
He was immediately aware of what was happening around him.
The meteorites had apparently penetrated deep into the ground because there was nothing surviving below his feet. That was one worry solved. He had no desire to dig out lairs, but then again, if it came to that they would probably just resort to another barrage of meteorites. Every extra one would dig deeper.
He pulled his attention away from pointless thoughts and concentrated. There was no immediate risk, so he had relaxed slightly but that was not something he wanted Everlyn to notice after yesterday.
There were thirty loaka within range and most of them were stationary and not in the predatory waiting sense. They were already close to death and when he focused his attention on one of them, he could see the strange way it stood and the moist spot on the ground that was too large to have come from drool.
Carefully, he assessed the different clusters, then pointed. “Five metres, six preparing an ambush.”
They moved to eliminate them. The monsters attempted to launch their trap but a split second application of Hostile Earth disrupted their momentum and left their suicidal like attacks falling short. Then exposed in the open and their key skills on cool down they were easily eliminated. Intelligent area of attack spells were launched by the rest of his team to clean up the scattered individuals. Tom didn’t participate with his lightning barrier because he lacked the mana and it was not a good fit for the situation. With their magic supporting them, they swept through the hellscape. Everlyn only stepped in to direct their efforts twice to pre-emptively destroy a gathering group that was outside his range. Within his sensing domain, he was the ultimate scout. The loaka were not capable of flight or floating or holding perfectly still, so everywhere they gathered he could see them and direct his companions to eliminate them. .
The smoke still hurt to breathe but no one broke down into coughing fits because Clare and Michael were throwing frequent heals to patch the damage the smoke was doing. Eventually, the last remnants were eliminated, and they left the ring of molten boulders.
They all appreciated reaching the open air.
A portal appeared, a moment later and Everlyn, smiling, grabbed the boss stone. “Clean up time. We have about twenty boss monsters to kill. It’ll be fun,”” she said cheerfully. “We’re going to aim to do this quickly. Tom, There’s no embargo on your use of meteorite. The chosen will unleash their own powers… only when magic is exhausted will we descend to finish them physically, but otherwise we’re going to destroy them all from the air.”
Without comment, he sat down on the ritual circle that Harry was making and the chosen who retreated to almost a kilometre away came to join them.
There was a feeling of steely resolve throughout their group. The zone was as good as finished and soon they would descend further and face stronger monsters.
It took almost half a day to wipe out the remaining bosses and gather sufficient stones for them to all leave the zone.
It was neither glamorous nor interesting work. The two camps with semi-sapient monsters got two volleys of meteorites in close succession and were wiped out without a fight. The other ponds were equally as uneventful. If harnessed meteorite was unavailable, they would descend to fight hovering ten metres above the ground. In practice it was the chosen’s magic, doing the bulk of the destruction. The humans tried to help, launching chaos bolts as fast as they could be physically created to produce the occasionally spectacular outcome amongst all the failures.
Brutal, efficient, and boring, thankfully, he was not called on to tank anything..
“Team meeting,” Everlyn declared as she stood up with the last stone they needed which was tossed to Harry. “I assume we position to save Vidja.” she was staring at Keikain as she half asked half stated the question.
The earth mage raised his hands defensively. “I articulated my objections the other day. I don’t like the risk we’re taking. Giving Selena’s squad a potential hand up gives me the shivers. Having said that, I recognise there’s no choice. We’ve collectively decided to save Vidja, and I can’t really argue against the logic. But…” Keikain turned to face him. “Tom, I was wondering if you couldmake a habit of using true dreams to monitor them. Every three days, if possible.”
He hesitated. It was a big ask but… he remembered the plan to rob them and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t hatch a similar attempt. “I will. If they’re taking steps to betray us the dreams will reveal it and then we can reposition as required. Hopefully, they respect the threat of my oracle skill.”
“Good, it’ll make me feel better, but we need to remember that no ability is foolproof.”
“I know that Keikain… but tier nine at this point of the competition is close to unblockable. Especially with weeks to let it act.”
Keikain scratched his head. “I know… if you had a different skill I might have pushed harder to abandon Vidja but…” he sighed. “This is for the best. And if Selena wasn’t in the picture I would have tried to save her team every single time. Life’s hard sometimes. It forces you to make a choice between horrible options.”
Everlyn ignored their banter and turned to the elder. “Largest one. We’ll depart from exit three to get as close to Vidja as possible.”
The elder bobbed in agreement and then they took their positions and were effortlessly pulled into the sky.
Thor produced two bottles.
“What’s this?”
The big man winked at him. “Cold beer. The zone’s pacified so we might as well enjoy the ride.” He opened one and handed it to Tom.
Curiously, he sipped it and it was divine. Real beer, he had been missing the joy it gave after a hards day work. “Thanks. I didn’t realise I needed this.”
“Sometimes you need to appreciate the finer things in life.”
The flight was going to be a relaxing twenty minutes, and the landscape was the same as previously. Rolling hills with the strange patchy vegetation, the ever present mist and the ponds but this time there was no tension in anticipation of a coming battle. With the beer in one hand and the chosen’s magic making the seat comfortable, it was idyllic. They flew high in the air, which meant they were safe from all dangers. He could relax, drink and enjoy the occasion.
Then, too soon for him, they reached the exit. It was another cave with a couple of holes that the vegetation poked into. The moment they approached the large tunnel that led downwards with an intention to leave, there was a ding as the quest updated.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Everyone check and upgrade.” Everlyn ordered.
They trusted the chosen, but there was a need to sustain their discipline. Tom waited until it was his turn to go into the system room.
Congratulation for completing your quest.
Your contribution is 12%
Experience awarded 480,000.
He smiled. The reward was more than enough for his purposes, but the contribution percentage seemed low. Then he thought about it a little more. Twelve percent he guessed wasn’t that bad. The chosen had taken a much more active role in this zone and had been responsible for defeating over half the bosses. They had passed the quest stones to the humans, not the other way around.
That meant that the overall humanity allocation would be under fifty. Which, if his maths was correct that implied he had got a quarter of all the experience allocated to the humans, maybe a little more. That felt about right despite how passive he had been for the first couple of days his high contribution was testimony to how devastating the meteorites were once he started unleashing them.
Now, he needed to focus on upgrading. The next zone was going to be rank twenty-six and to keep up ideally should be mid rank eighteen. Currently he was only seventeen, which meant he would need four levels but if he bought the trait, he could only afford three. .
That, he decided was close enough.
“Buy the trait and three levels.” He ordered. The intention behind the command allowed the assistant to understand what he desired. The wall he was looking at changed.
Classes Level – Forty Two
Lightning Tank: 21 (+3) - Expert
Elemental Summoner: 21 () – Expert
Breadth of Serendipity: 0 – Legendary
Attributes
Strength: 143 (+9 Class, +2 Title: Strength Spring)—Rank 17 (+2)
Vitality: 167 (+9 Class, +3 Title: Vitality fount)—Rank 20 (+2)
Agility: 142 (+6 Trait: Fates Agility, +3 Title: Tripled Class)—Rank 17 (+1)
Magic: 159 —Rank 19
Fate: 241 (+6 Trait: Fates Agility, +3 Title: Competition Shaker (I))
Mana Pool: Magic * 2 = 318
He nodded in satisfaction at the numbers. He was rapidly growing in power. With the huge bonus that this trial was giving them, it was possible that he would match his achievements in the tutorial which took forty years within the first year. It was a terrifying thought, but it was basically the power of all the titles he had amassed. It made him far more powerful than he should otherwise be.
The text faded, leaving him with plain metal walls once more. He looked around with a smile. He liked the austerity of this system room set up. The continuous reminder of what he needed to achieve. Something from nothing. Shiny metal walls that spoke of strength and struggle to him. A battle against loneliness that he had won and a fight that he had to keep doing.
The job wasn’t done yet. He still needed to do his bit to guarantee the future for his family.
He glanced at the wall on his left and the words of the new trait appeared as it reacted to his desire.
Trait: Crystallised Moment.
When triggered, freezes time for up to 1 second. Up to three charges can be stored, and the charges regenerate once every 12 minutes.
It still seemed a weak trait, but it was about potential. He would evolve it. That second was nothing but a couple of good evolutions and that second might be a minute. Once he got his domain, with his traits, skills and their synergies. Once that happened, Channelled Damage Mirror would be reflecting a hundred percent of enemies spell’s potential back at it.
Out of all of his purchases, it was still the one that troubled him the most. Its choice was a more logical extension of synergy rather than guaranteed power and it would only come into its own if he evolved it.
With a sad smile, he left the system room and with the whole team around him went down the tunnel. It was time to face another zone and conquer it too.
This time at the bottom of the long tunnel was not a door to another passage, but a portal.
They all stopped in surprise.
“Were we expecting this?” Michael asked, staring at it.
Everlyn frowned as equally perplexed. “No. It looked like islands. It shouldn’t need a portal to reach it the normal tunnel system should have been sufficient.” A memory crystal appeared in her hand and she pressed it against her temple.
Tom was thoroughly confused. He used his memory to recall the details of the tile. The painting was funny; it had always seemed slightly suspicious. The picture was of a series of islands that were placed close to together on shaded black that he had thought was like deep swamp water. “I’m not sure either. I expected a normal connection too.”
Everlyn lowered the crystal. “Given the portal I’m changing my assumptions. I think they might be floating islands as opposed to one’s in water.”
Michael frowned and his forehead wrinkled. “Like in the sky?”
She nodded.
“If that’s the case, we shouldn’t enter like normal. We should fly on the back of the chosen. You know in case we exit over a never ending void and fall to our starvation and death.”
“It won’t hurt,” Tom agreed.
They reorganised flew through and found themselves emerging into a normal safe room.
Ding.
It was a quest and caused the usual quick cycling of people stepping into their system room. When it was his turn, he did the same.
Quest issued.
To gain access to all exits from the zone personally kill 50 Island Hoppers.
The wording of the quest annoyed him. He had been comfortable with gathering quests being individualised, but kill ones was a different story.
He exited and saw that Everlyn had already moved to stand next to one exit and Rahmat the other.
“Give us five minutes to check things out,” she called out over her shoulder and then just stood there like she was in her system room, but not quite as extreme. Tom ignored them. He didn’t think it was spirits, like the late Jingyi had utilised, but for Everlyn at least a type of astral projection.
It didn’t matter too much it was effective and Rahmat had similar capabilities but there was no way they would use the same mechanism. Michael made sure they had diversity in all their purchases. If Everlyn was blocked, then the other scout would have something that would work, and vice versa.
Tom turned to face the elder. “Largest one, that quest. Is it a problem?”
The eldest shifted to face him. “Blessed one. The island hoppers are almost certainly non-sapient. There’ll be no issue with us meeting the requirements of the quest.”
“Thank God for that.” Tom muttered. “But this quest. We’re going to have to be more careful going forward to make sure you’re not dragged into a zone you can’t complete.” There had already been various monsters that the chosen had refused to kill and the near sapient examples were only likely to increase the closer they got to the centre of the trial. If they were assigned an extermination quest against such a group, then the chosen would refuse to participate. One mistake and all Tom’s attempts to save them would be lost. They could all die and that would be a tragedy.
“Blessed one, we thank you for your consideration.”
“It won’t even be that hard to be honest.” He scratched his hair. “We can send a human first to determine the quest and then let you pivot as required. If we’ve linked with Vidja’s group, we’ll also have the numbers to split into two teams as well.”
The elder bobbed thankfully. Internally Tom was seething. The trial had just thrown another curve ball at them that they were going to have to juggle.
Finally, Everlyn stirred. “Like we feared. It’s a series of floating islands.”
“Does that mean without flight we would be screwed.” Michael asked sharply.
“Maybe, but probably not from what I saw. There were paths, roots linking each of the floating rocks, including ones that acted like stepping stones that were only ten metres apart.”
“Ten metres,” Clare blurted out in shock.
Everlyn barely managed to avoid rolling her eyes. “We can all leap that far. None of us have a physical attribute under fourteen. Ten metres is easy we should all be able to do fifteen with a run up.”
Clare shut her eyes and frog jumped forward. She travelled almost six metres.
“What was that?” Thor guffawed.
Her cheeks reddened. “I was checking how far I could jump. What’s that six, seven metres.”
“I wasn’t claiming you could do ten from a standing start.”
The healer looked a bit embarrassed. “No, I knew that. I just wanted to get an idea of my physical capability. I’m so used to thinking like I did on earth, being limited to human norms, especially so early since the re-set and it doesn’t help my build is primarily magic. I forget how far my bodies come physically.”
“Ten, fifteen metres if that’s what we’re facing, we could make the jumps if we had to.” Michael said flatly. “But we have the chosen, so let’s not waste any more time on the topic. Did you see anything else?”
“Yeah, over thirty island hoppers got within range.”
“Why are you smiling?”
“I confirmed they were all vulnerable to lightning.”
“Are they like the wasps?” Tom asked immediately. “Will their vulnerability change as we travel?”
“No,” she pulled out a memory crystal. “It was labelled on this but…” she paused dramatically. “There’s being vulnerable to lightning and then there’s the weakness that the island hoppers have…” she shook her head. “A spark of electricity won’t cause them to spontaneously combust but it’s close. Tom, you should be able to tear them apart with your spark spell.”
“My spell Lightning Ball is probably better.”
She thought for a moment. “Agreed. That spell is AOE and has range. It’s definitely the better choice.”
“How about the quest?” Michael asked. “Can Tom help us with our kills.”
Everlyn shrugged. “We’ll test it, of course, but it says kill. It doesn’t tell us to do it solo or in glorious single combat. Anyway, no point hanging around. We’ll assess their strength for a couple of hours, then plan the best way forward. Tom be ready to disable them when I draw them closer.”
They all funnelled through the exit from the safety room.
Tom’s breath caught when he saw the view.
The landscape outside was majestic. It was possibly the singular most beautiful thing he had ever seen. A series of suspended islands. Floating chunks of rocks with tenacious blue, purple, and green vegetation growing in patches on them. It was also true wilderness. There were no ruins that would spoil the pristine view or anything like that. Only the superb brilliance of nature.
And it was so varied.
Some islands were the size of a trampoline… they were often entangled by vegetation, from one of the larger rocks, so they became a satellite of a greater island and helped formed the paths that Everlyn had talked about. Then there were the more sizeable versions which ranged from the size of a public swimming pool to a city block.
Next to him Everlyn pointed.
He looked up and saw that there were islands above them and then, when he glanced over the edge of his rock there were more. Two layers above and three below they had not been on the tile, but he shouldn’t have been surprised there were only so many ways a flat surface could depict a three dimensional space.
Despite its beauty, the landscape had an aura of threat. Not from monsters, but from physics. If you fell off the edge, there was a chance you would land on another island, but there was a higher likelihood that you wouldn’t and would end up falling for what looked like forever.
“Beautiful,” Toni whispered.
Keikain elbowed him.
“What’s it this time?” Tom snapped rounding on the earth mage in annoyance.
“Easy Tom. I just wanted to say. This stone and your Living Rock skill…” he shrugged. “I could be wrong but floating… I can see that being a useful skill to have in your arsenal.”
He considered it for a moment. He had subconsciously pigeon holed Living Rock as a defensive mechanism but this would give it utility beyond the battlefield. “It’s a great idea.” He stared at the ground and focused. He had so much practice with this sort of activity he didn’t even feel himself activate a specific spell but the stone at his feet crumbled.
He knelt down and extracted a football sized chunk of stone and manipulated it thoughtfully between his hands. A few facts were immediately apparent. It had mass and was surprisingly dense for a tier nothing rock. It was not like a balloon. “Interesting. I was expecting it to be lighter than air but instead Gravity can’t touch it.”
Keikain appeared thoughtful and snagged his own smaller piece. He manoeuvred it around his hand like a magician would with the stone jumping from knuckle to knuckle. “I see. That probably makes it less useful most of the time but conversely in the right situation… To be able turn off most of the gravity affecting you might hard counter some spell casters.”
“Agreed. I’m not going to absorb this stuff or at least not until I confirm there’s no higher tier versions available.” He grabbed the man’s arm. “Keikain, it was a really clever idea. Thank you.”
“I didn’t suggest it for you Tom. I did it to strengthen humanity.”
Everlyn waved her boys. “Boys.” She waited until they looked and then aimed at a distant island.
Crack.
Tom glanced up to see an arrow fly and strike an island hopper about a hundred metres away. It had been resting on a pool sized rock on the layer below. The arrow she had selected had no magic on it and surprisingly it bounced off the creature’s skin. Everlyn frowned. “Tougher than I expected. Everyone. Make sure no one attacks it. I want to let Tom stun it so we can work out the best way to neutralise them.”
The creature leapt off the island and soared toward them. It had no visible eyes, was the size of an eagle with a scrawny torso and massive wings and unlike a bird it had thick almost frog like legs that it had used initially to propel itself into the air.
It approached them surprisingly swiftly, and Tom hastily shifted to get between it and the others.