Chapter 60: A Golden Glowstick
They arrived at the closest tower with no further incident. They were attacked by various iron rank monsters on the way, but nothing as difficult as the overgrowth serpent had assaulted them.
Nara’s map arbitrarily designated her tower as the South tower. It may not have been so arbitrary, as the sun overhead traveled across the sky towards her left. Whether or not the sun still set in the west in an astral space was anyone’s guess, but it was a reason as good as any.
From the imprinted footsteps on the jungle floor, it was clear many others had already made their way into the tower. The four of them had arrived with a few hours to spare until sunset.
“New arrivals? Good timing,” an adventurer told them, “The leader is upstairs holding a briefing.”
“The leader?”
“Qingxi Lugu, she’s been designated temporary commander.”
It was clear that the adventures of the South tower already knew of the impending monster wave. The lookout, Osal, directed them up to the operations auditorium, where Qingxi Lugu was directing defenses.
She was a beautiful young woman, an elf. Her hair was a dark brown hinted with red, a shade lighter than the usual black hair of the Sanshi locals. Her chestnut brown eyes were intelligent and sharp, and she quickly organized defenses and communications with adventurers who had taken up positions as messengers, her hands and feet never ceasing movement. From what Nara saw, there was a decent number of adventurers here, around 50. Their numbers had been greatly reduced from the initial trials, around 150 had failed out, died, or chosen the other path from the initial 300 plus. Hopefully, few had died, and most had managed to use their escape tokens in time. It seemed their spawn locations were grouped as such around each tower so that they’d be evenly spaced out.
“Newcomers, leader. Four of them.”
“Good. That brings out total numbers up to fifty six,” she said, “Most the others have already arrived.”
“We ran into a bronze rank serpent. Got held up a bit,” Nara said.
“And you killed it?”
“Yeah, it’s very dead.”
“Even better,” Qingxi said. “Now it won’t attack us at night. Nicely done, the four of you.”
She performed a hurried Sanshi bow, not forgetting her well-educated etiquette, “I am Qingxi Lugu, serving as temporary operations commander. Pardon my rudeness, but I request your names and brief summary of your capabilities.”
“Nara Edea, escalating damage attacker. High mobility with dimension abilities, communication racial, looting abilities, dimensional inventory, and sustain aura.”
“Communication ability? Show me.”
Nara apologized inwardly to her team and kicked them all from her party. She couldn’t communicate with them anyway at her distance, and while she could initiate a voice chat with those outside of the team, the ability lost a lot of convenient functions when used without forming a team. Her ability was no use to them apart from her, and she could invite them back in again once they were in range, which her ability would notify her of. She had to prioritize.
She quickly explained to Qingxi the brief functionalities provided by Party Guide.
“Gods graces, what a boon. You are an outworlder then?”
“Me and him both,” Nara gestured, “He doesn’t have this same ability though. He’s got some other useful stuff.”
“Such as?”
“John Aurelius, healer. Abilities are on the paltry side.”
“That’s true for all of us John; it’s the reason why we are here. If the stones you have are keeping you from using them, consider a trade with others here. I will ensure a fair and safe transaction.”
“That’s kind of you, miss Lugu,” John said. “My ability in question is this one.”
He displayed it to her through Nara’s Party Guide, since Qingxi had already been added into the party. She had accepted the holographic screen without batting an eye, too busy to be surprised, or already having seen a similar ability before in her family.
“I see, this will provide us with the information advantage on any particularly troublesome monster. If you see an opportunity, use it.”
“Easy enough. I’ll do just that.”
“And you two are?”
“Hangsu Chun, heavy defender. At your service—for a price.”
She used Party Guide to look at his abilities.
“Iron shaping and fortress defense abilities? Another blessing. Osal.”
“Yup, leader?”
“Take him to defense construction.”
“On it.”
“And you?”
“Raja Jagar. Area attacker,” he said, leveling his eyes with her in a confident and prideful gaze. Nara was surprised he made no trouble about her position as a leader. Raja was aware of his bad reputation in Sanshi, and challenged Qingxi to say something insulting about him. She did not, more evidence of the relative indifference the other families had towards the Jagar.
“I’m clear on your abilities. Area lightning attacks—you’ll prove useful.”
She made no comments on his personality or past, either not caring, or the pressing situation was simply not the time to care. As long as Raja did his job clearing out hordes of monsters, she didn’t care what his personality or family name was. A fair share of nobility from foreign countries had made the journey here in pursuit of opportunity. If she was surprised by every last noble scion, she wouldn’t have the time to plan effective defenses.
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Qingxi’s comment about Raja’s usefulness had been offhand, but it meant a lot to him, which surprised him. His entire family denied their inferiority to other families that they had brought upon themselves, sinking further into their prideful delusion. His abilities may be granted by his essences, but he was glad to have them to contribute. He would be positioned on one of the tower terraces, unleashing lightning destruction on the initial horde before retreating up the stairwell.
The general plan was thus—hold out the horde outside for as long as possible. Then, slowly retreat up the tower as their defenses were torn down, putting up new ones on the entrances to each floor. The walls of the tower were strong, but they had no doors at any of their entrances. If they were lucky, none of their blockades would be broken through. Qingxi clarified that his was unlikely. If a full tower had been provided to them, they’d likely have to use the full thing. Archers and other magic casters were also stationed on the terraces. They would have to take out any fliers or crawlers that besieged the top floors.
Qingxi let Nara keep John on her party, and quickly doled out the remaining eight positions to the most important people to their operations. Nara wouldn’t drop John even if Qingxi asked, and Qingxi had enough sense than to separate the two outworlders both in position and communication. For this entire trial, she had been making do.
Nara was assigned to a team of high mobility attackers and scouts. They would move as far out as possible, killing as many monsters in the surrounding as possible.
First, she stayed with John as he used four additional awakening stones. The Awakening Stone of Growth Nara just looted from the overgrowth snake was also frequently used by healers. John had additionally gained an Awakening Stone of the Guardian and an Awakening Stone of the Celestial, both legendary stones, from his trial. He had no need to trade, so far. It seemed the Trial tailored stones as something useful towards their recipient. One final stone was a basic Awakening Stone of Might which Nara traded one of her rarer awakening stones on hand for; while the Awakening Stone of Might was common, it was a popular stone. John felt he lacked damage, and wanted another ability to protect himself. It wasn’t a bad choice: might could easily awaken a buffing ability or a special attack. A special attack may not be particularly effective on a healer, but John had the right to influence his abilities towards something he was more comfortable with. Nara understood the inherent, ever-present tinnitus hum of nervous anxiety that she and John shared in being stranded on an entirely different dimension, in a world where the violence was not just another continent away.
Whether a buffing ability or special attack, both would be good for John.
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-Party member [John Aurelius] has used [Awakening Stone of the Guardian].
-[John Aurelius] has awakened Immortal Essence Ability, [Shield of the Guardian]. [John Aurelius] has awakened 3 of 5 Immortal Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Shield of the Guardian]
Conjuration (shield)
Cost: Very high mana
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Effect (Iron): Conjure a floating shield that can withstand a large amount of damage. The shield will automatically float in a location around the conjurer to intercept attacks, or it can be actively controlled. The shield can be healed to restore its integrity. When the shield is destroyed, it cannot be reconjured until its cooldown ends. If the shield has not been destroyed, it can be reconjured at any time, at a moderate mana cost. The shield regenerates durability slowly while not conjured.
-Party member [John Aurelius] has used [Awakening Stone of the Celestial].
-[John Aurelius] has awakened Magic Essence Ability, [Celestial Flame Mantle]. [John Aurelius] has awakened 3 of 5 Magic Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Celestial Flame Mantle]
Spell (boon)
Incantation: “Mantle of celestial flames, protect and burn.”
Cost: High mana
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Effect (Iron): Grant a boon of white holy flames to an ally. Holy flames do not harm the ally, but burn enemies who attack the target, and adds fire damage to those the target of the boon attacks. The holy flames have increased effect against undead targets or those with unholy boons. The holy flames grant increased resistance to fire damage and afflictions.
-Party member [John Aurelius] has used [Awakening Stone of Growth].
-[John Aurelius] has awakened Magic Essence Ability, [Bolster]. [John Aurelius] has awakened 4 of 5 Magic Essence Abilities.
Ability: [Bolster]
Awakening Stone: Growth
Spell
Incantation: “Let your power fulminate.”
Cost: Low mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): The next essence ability used by the target ally has increased effect. This can affect parameters including damage, range and number of targets, depending on the affected ability. Cannot be used on self. This effect cannot stack.
-Party member [John Aurelius] has used [Awakening Stone of Might].
-[John Aurelius] has awakened Life Essence Ability, [The Strength of Life]. [John Aurelius] has awakened 4 of 5 Life Essence Abilities.
Ability: [The Strength of Life]
Aura
Cost: None
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Allies within your aura have increased [Power] and [Recovery].
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John staggered, suddenly besieged by the sudden awareness of his own aura, as well as increased sense of all the other auras around him.
“Your aura picked an inconvenient time to awaken, but congratulations?” Nara said, patting him on the shoulder.
Now wasn’t the time to teach John about auras, but it mattered little for him. He wasn’t diving into monster territory where stealth was important. If his aura spread out everywhere like a lighthouse beacon in the dead of night, that was perfectly fine. Qingxi assigned him someone who was free and an adept teacher to quickly give John a crash course on auras.
John unfortunately hadn’t awakened any additional healing abilities, but he had gotten the damage ability and self-protection he wanted. Celestial Flame Mantle doubled as protection and damage as did Shield of the Guardian; the former leaned more towards offense, and the latter towards defense. John could equip the Shield of the Guardian himself, swinging it like Hangsu did. It was too heavy to do so effectively without Beorn’s physical strength increase, however, so he wouldn’t use it that way outside of extreme situations.
His aura served as a free resource generation and affliction resistance increase, as those were both properties of the recovery attribute. A boost to recovery had more upfront effect than Nara’s Integrity boon, but her singular effect would eventually surpass his in a large scale battle, which this was shaping out to be.
“Are you going to use your Time stone?” John asked.
“Might as well. It’s not like I planned to sell it.”
The shimmering stone of silver and gold melted away in her hand. When she saw the ability notification, her face froze.
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-You have used [Awakening Stone of Time].
-You have awakened Harmonic Essence Ability, [Hand of Time]. You have awakened 5 of 5 Harmonic Essence Abilities.
-All abilities in the Harmonic Essence have been awakened. The Harmonic Essence is bound to the [Power] attribute. The [Power] attribute will advance with the lowest ranked essence ability.
Ability: [Hand of Time]
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme Mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon a [Hand of Time] to serve as a familiar.
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“Nara? What is the matter?”
Nara couldn’t quite believe her eyes, staring at the screen in front of her.
John glanced at the ability, “That ability name is oddly familiar.”
He thought for a moment, since Nara seemed catatonic from her lack of response.
“Wasn’t that astral being bloke called a Hand of Time?”
“Yeah,” Nara said softly, “He was.”
John gave Nara a gentle squeeze on her shoulder.
“That means you’ll see your friend again.”
Nara shook her head, “Another Hand of Time could be my familiar.”
“You don’t really believe that.”
Nara grinned, “You’re right. Chekhov’s Gun dictates that since I know him, he’s the one who’s going to be my familiar.”
“Good on you! Let’s bust this trial wide open and art up that reunion you want.”
“I’ll have to give him an earful when I see him. Instead of some cool time manipulation ability, all I got was a golden glowstick.”