Chapter 59: The Test of Survival
A team of three against a bronze rank monster was an achievable fight except for one issue: Raja was the primary damage dealer of the three, and his Lightning, Chain, and Potent Essences for the Onslaught Confluence wasn’t suited towards single target damage. He was exceptional against swarms of enemies, but he could only chip away at the snake with coils of electricity. His combo was mana-inefficient, casting massive spells of lightning to attack just one target, aside from his crackling lightning whip that he used to attack.
Luckily, the impromptu team had a healer—John. Unluckily, he didn’t have his full suite of abilities. He was on the low side of healing for a dedicated healer, without the boost Elf or Runic racial abilities provided towards spells and healing.
Hangsu was a defender with the essences Shield, Deep, and Might for the Fortress Confluence. He kept the python at bay, smashing fangs back with his large shield, or conjuring massive chunks of iron from the sky to slam on top of the snake to force it to bow its head like he was the king of iron, and the snake was his disobedient subject.
What John had to watch out for was its whip like tail, which attempted to lethally strike him or Raja at the backline. A well-timed shield saved their lives, but bronze rank power was such that if any attack solidly got through, they’d suffer great injury, especially with their delicate human-like bodies. John only had one large healing spell left to him until Vigor Wellspring was available again. Otherwise, he cycled shields, cast Life Bolt whenever possible, then unleashed Mana Tide once all of their mana pools wore down.
The jungle python was winning the battle of attrition.
*****
Nara dashed through the forest, taking pot shots with arrows to keep the attention of the gorilla horde. Occasionally, she teleported in to tear through one, then teleported back to safety, running just fast enough to keep within sight.
Her objective wasn’t to kill all the sabretooth gorillas, but to lead then far away enough from John that they wouldn’t hinder his escape. Once she accomplished that, she teleported to a node she placed high above her into the air, disappearing out of sight. She circled back, looting the dead gorillas with a passing thought then continued her dash after John.
With Nara’s map ability which tracked enemies and allies, she easily pinpointed what direction John had traveled, but it was entirely unneeded.
A massive tunnel of crushed plants and compacted dirt told Nara all that she needed to know.
She detected the four with her aura before she even heard them through the thick noise of the jungle muffled by massive leaves of waxy green.
To her relief, John was with two others—both auras she recognized. One was Raja Jagar, who she was surprised to sense but glad for his presence nonetheless. The other was one of the people that had gone with him during the exam, but hadn’t abandoned Raja like Kenny did, although she did not remember his name.
The snake still had not detected her, so she leapt onto its back, slashing repeatedly with her sword enhanced with resonating-force damage to get through its scales. Thanatos followed up, bursts of black flame smacking into vibrant green scales, although it wasn’t particularly effective.
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-[Dimensional Instability] has been resisted.
-[Dimensional Rupture] has been resisted.
-Thanatos has inflicted an instance of [Vulnerable].
-[Umbral Burn] has been resisted.
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Due to the effects of rank disparity, most of her afflictions did not get through. Each rank provided resistances to damage, afflictions, and effects of the rank below. She slashed furiously, caring not for defenses as the serpent was otherwise occupied. Not all afflictions would take effect, but all she had to do was compensate with a multitude of attacks. Some would get through, and that’s all she needed. Once any afflictions had stuck, she cast Entropy, inevitably pushing it along the path to it’s demise, if they could live long enough to see it.
It didn’t matter, she kept at it, hacking at the back of the snake. It began to take notice, evaluating her as the bigger threat. It’s massive, scaled body rose, attempting to shake her off. She dug her sword in, and held on like a cowboy on a bucking bull. The snake’s tail was unnaturally flexible; it whipped out, striking towards her.
Raja switched from damage to control, leaning on some of the restrictive chain properties of his essence set. Chains of semi-physical lightning wrapped around the tail, but after a moment’s delay the snake tore through it, tail swing beelining towards Nara on its back.
She waited until the last moment, then teleported away.
The snake wasn’t so smart that it could see through her plan. Iron rank abilities against a bronze rank monster was not effective, but a bronze rank attack against a bronze rank monster was.
Its own attack didn’t seriously harm itself, but caused it to temporarily falter from the blow. The annoying pest off it’s back, it resumed its assault on the group.
With Nara, they didn’t have to worry about winning the battle of attrition, they just had to survive it.
The battle wore on. Nara’s aura, Astral Blessing, began to pull weight, alleviating John’s concerns over mana since his Mana Tide had worn off. It was just a slight pressure off of their backs, but it gradually grew stronger as the battle progressed. More stamina, mana, and health for everyone meant that John had less to heal, and everyone had more resources to use on expensive abilities and buffing powers.
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The onslaught of lightning and rending damage from Raja and Nara had begun to take its toll on the serpent. It’s attacks were noticeably less precise, nerves fried from Raja’s lightning damage. Even a basic, glancing attack from Nara tore away chunks of snake flesh, shattering green scales like sea glass in a woodchipper.
Nara could attack with less risk, letting Dimensional Rupture inflict most of the damage, if she wanted too. However with Boon Conversion, going for gouging blows was more effective and made effective use of Dimensional Instability. Glancing blows were easy, but wasted the damage scaling of her affliction. She went in hard, constantly harassing the serpent’s back where it struggled to reach with its impaired flexibility while Hangsu kept its head forcibly occupied. The serpent’s jaw and skull was bruised and bloodied, Hangsu’s repeated heavy shield blows and iron block conjurations exacting their toll. He may be a tank, but repeated blows from a slab of metal was always going to hurt. Still, the serpent persisted. Rank disparity was not so easy to surpass.
This was the first time Nara had ever seen the stacking potential of her duo dimension afflictions. Like Encio had said, she was built for endurance combat. The longer she fought against the same opponent, the deadlier she became. Hitting up a rank against increased defense, regeneration, and health pools was one of the most common types of endurance combat, and a situation many adventurers had to face as they attempted to break through each rank to the next.
She didn’t think she was the endurance type, but…if forced with the threat of opening a can of surströmming, she’d say she was a jogger, not a sprinter.
Her abilities may have been picking at scraps to determine their path, but scraps they relished like a person who had worked out then starved themselves in preparation for an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ . Just the merest of inclinations toward endurance fighting had determined her path, her soul working with what it had available.
Nara activated World’s End for what she knew was the last time. Going through the rest of the serpent’s lifeforce normally, even now as it struggled, would have been toilsome, but execute abilities scaled with damage already done.
And the serpent was on its last legs, and by last legs she meant no legs.
Her sword was a rectangular mimicry of a black hole—a deep red and gold event horizon surrounded the black blade, void dark than its typical starlit appearance. The rending damage triggered, eating once again a large portion of the snake’s lifeforce away, a massive boulder sized chunk disappearing as its flesh tore itself to shreds. The transcendent damage triggered, eating away the rest of the snake’s lifeforce. The serpent shimmered with transcendent light— silver light with streams of light blue and gold consumed the serpent, where it vanished like the last rays of dusk, neither body nor rainbow smoke left behind.
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-[Overgrowth Serpent] has been wholly annihilated. It has been automatically looted.
* 10 bronze spirit coins
* 100 iron spirit coins
* 10000 lesser spirit coins
* 1 monster core (bronze)
* 20 snake quintessence (bronze)
* 20 growth quintessence (bronze)
* Overgrowth Serpent skin (bronze)
* Awakening Stone of Growth
-Loot has been added to your [Astral Domain].
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Nara was topped full of stamina, but she felt mentally exhausted. She conjured comfortable chairs for the group, where the four sat and rest for a moment, calming their minds and catching their breaths.
“Thank you two for helping John,” Nara said.
“Thank you from me too, mates,” John added sincerely, “I thought I was snake food.”
“This is hardly the last we’ll see of bronze rank monsters,” Raja said. “Thus, I offer a proposal the two of you will no doubt be overjoyed to receive: we team up, and make way towards the closest tower.”
Nara rolled her eyes at his pretentious tone, but he had saved John—He meant well.
“Hey, I’m all for a healer,” Hangsu said. “Works for me. You too black sword; Cool weapon by the way.”
“Call me Nara, although black sword isn’t too terrible as far as moniker’s go. I was called blank-faced bitch a while ago, can you believe that?”
“Who said that?” John asked.
“Some idiots were fleecing awakening stones from other adventurers. I gave them a random one I didn’t care about.”
“You just gave it away?” Hangsu said, “Do you know how much money that is?”
“Uh yeah, but me and John both have looting powers, and I wasn’t going to use it. Didn’t you notice?”
They had noticed. Neither Hangsu nor Raja had awakened a dimensional inventory, and a bag of coins had slapped each in the face, along with other goodies inside. In particular, a snake tooth dagger nearly stabbed Raja on the way down, which would have been an embarrassing scar story.
“That hurt,” Hansu said, “But I like free money.” He flashed a thumb’s up.
“You just fought a train-sized snake, and you thought a bag of coins falling on your face hurt?”
“I get in the moment, you know? Pain sort of turns off and I just focus. Snake coming at me, fangs out, and I just crack teeth and pummel scales. It’s what I’m paid to do.”
“I do actually get that.” Nara nodded with understanding.
“And what is a train?” Raja said.
*****
John and Nara accepted Raja’s proposal. There were no downsides to it besides Raja’s arrogant words, although it was more surface bluster than anything substantial at this point, which all members understood. She invited the two to her party, consuming two of the remining four slots she had. She had tried to voice chat with Sen and the others, but they were out of her communication range although they were still in her party.
Despite Hangsu’s claims as a for-hire team member, he seemed pleased with Raja. Raja’s change before and after the examination was a stark difference, and Hangsu had witnessed the before-and-after. Hangsu’s contract would end at bronze rank, where he’d have to decide whether he wanted to join Raja’s team permanently, splitting risks and rewards as any normal party would.
Hangsu was willing, although he didn’t say so. Free money was free money. For an ordinary iron ranker, money was in tight supply.
Raja had been willing to stick up for a stranger against a bronze rank monster, where even the three of them combined had great difficulty. They were all with unfinished power sets, and the single large serpent was a bad match for Raja’s abilities.
Nara transformed Nirvana into a machete, chopping down plants in front of her. She struggled at first, but quickly gained the hang of it as she referenced techniques from The Way of the Traveler which had even this. Cutting through thick undergrowth was a necessary skill for any jungle-faring traveler. Thanatos burned plants in controlled quantities, although the lush foliage wasn’t quick to catch fire, so he stopped, taking up his position at Nara’s flank instead.
“I’ve been meaning to ask: do you know something we don’t about these towers?”
“What makes you say that?” asked John.
“Well, he said to head to the nearest one, instead of the middle one.”
“I praise you for your perceptiveness,” Raja said, “Indeed, my noble self acquired a vital piece of information that you all had not.”
“Get on with it?” Hangsu said.
Raja cleared his throat, glaring at Hangsu, “I had inquired why the trial was that of survival. Three days in a jungle, even with bronze rank monsters, is not so difficult as to deem it as such.”
John had other thoughts on his evaluation, but he lacked the mobility that Raja possessed with his Lightning Essence, and the defensive power of Hangsu’s combo.
“And?” Hangsu pressed.
“The trial is named such for the calamity shall befall us every night. A swarm of monsters. Those towers are our fortresses. We cannot make it to the main tower in a single day, likely, none of us can. I suspect it contains the best defenses, so it is a journey we all must undertake in order to survive.”
The main tower was the largest, roughly three times the size of the other towers. Clearly, it was meant to fit all of the adventurers that would originally be split across the three other towers.
“Thus, we must make it to the closest tower before night falls and make defenses with haste. There is no other option.”